sinj's running foolishness 2007

Hullo there

this entry is almost an apology - I cropped up many weeks ago to report that I was in midst of training for the London Marathon again. Unfortunately I havent had the time to maintain this blog (which I enjoyed doing last year) - I'm working and studying too at the moment so something had to give!

Anyway - suffice to say my training has gone well - I think I'm in a slightly better position than last year - 5mins up on my 1/2 marathon time at the same point last year (1:46) and have avoided illness since Jan. I completed my last LONG LONG run on Saturday and am now officially "tapering" - although that still means 35 miles this week :)

If the weather is kind this year then hopefully I can get a lot nearer to 4 hours than I did last year (4:37) - the heat was crippling - and I was really not well before I started - couldnt tell if it was nerves/viral/whatever but I felt BAD for the whole week beforehand.

Only 18 days to go and those nerves are starting to jangle again - I guess I'll prove to myself if it was nerves-induced sickness. The difference this year is that i KNOW I can do it - even in bad conditions...

Wouldn't you just know it. Having gone through 16 weeks of training with no injury worries - with two weeks to go before the big race I start to get a real niggle in my left calf.

I can run on it - and it subsides after 10-15 minutes, but afterwards it stiffens badly. Any advice? I've never really had muscular problems before. I don't remember straining it at all - I think when I pushed hard (for me) at the 1/2 mara last week I must have tweaked it a little

I'm banking on it clearing up in the last week of taper before the race on 13th...

run was 6 miles around Hampton Court Palace in the snow and hail. erm...lovely.

last year this time I had a glorious tan from the warmest spring on record - this year I feel like Scott of the Antarctic some days...

A gentle 5 round Richmond Park. This calf is still niggling but again subsides after 15 minutes or so (or perhaps all my other pains catch up).

Should I: ice it? massage it? strap it? leave it? I've never had this kind of problem. I'm also using my old running shoes when I run from work in the week, and i think this might be exacerbated by their lack of cushion (they have done 600m+)

still hoping it will ease of its own accord, but have 4 & 12 to do over the weekend so we will see.

OK - so how can you run 20 miles one week in driving wind and rain and it be OK, and then the following week, 4 miles feels like a lifetime. A real miserable slog today. I guess some days you just DONT feel like it.

12 tomorrow. That'd better be easier!