Week 10, Session 1 - Recovery Run - (3.5 Miles)
Session 2 - 3 x 10 mins Threshold intervals (9.5 Miles)
Session 3 - Missed Session - (Recovery Run 5.5 Miles)
Session 4 - Progression Run (22 Miles - Last 8 miles @ Marathon Pace)
Well, the past week certainly had it's up's and downs, that's for sure !! After pushing things a little too much early in the week I thought that I was suffering from a reoccurance of the knee injury I had before Christmas and I thought it was going to threaten my long run on Sunday, but luckily things turned out okay and I completed THE BIG ONE !!
After running further than I'd ever gone before last Sunday (19 miles) my legs were feeling remarkably well first thing on Tuesday morning when I got up at 6:15am for my early morning recovery run before work. It was a lovely morning and when I got back I felt so good that I decided I was going to cycle to work. Unfortunately this was a bad decision, because even though I was feeling okay, I really should've just stuck to the planned excercise and not pushed it 2 days after running 19 miles. On route to work I pushed away too hard from a junction due to being stuck in the wrong gear and I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my left knee . . . I was not a happy chappy!! I took it very easy for the rest of the journey into work, but was cursing my luck all the way. For the rest of the day I had a dull ache around my knee and it felt like it did when I was injured last year. Amazingly I didn't feel any pain during the cycle ride home, but I knew something wasn't right.
When Thursday came I wasn't suffering anywhere near as much and I decided to go out at lunchtime for the scheduled interval session to see if the knee would hold up. The session actually went remarkably well although I did run the first interval quite carefully early on. Each interval was 1.45 miles long with 90 second recoveries and those recoveries felt pretty short after a threshold interval of that length. My interval paces were very consistent, although a little slower than I've been running during similar threshold sessions in previous weeks. Despite not being restricted by any knee pain during the run I could still tell that there was a slight problem with it, and when I'd completed the run it tightened up quite quickly.
I soon came to the conclusion that this wasn't a reocurrance of my previous injury and that it was tightness in my IT band. This I could deal with at such an early stage by massaging it with my "Stick". This is an amazing thing that I use to masage my legs, glutes and neck before and after most runs. Using this as a preventative maintanence tool saves me loads of cash on regular visits to the physio. Using this 3 times a day for the following 3 days appear to have sorted me out.
Saturday was a very busy day as it was Kieran's (my youngest son) 5th Birthday. He woke early, as expected, to open his presents and because his Nanny Sylvie and Auntie Katie were staying with us for the weekend he was even more excited than usual. After the mass present opening session we all had to quickly get ready for football as both of my boys play regularly on Saturday mornings. Kieran had training at the Priory Soccer Development Center and Ben (my eldest) had a match for the Priory Pumas U7's. The boys play football for an amazing football club and they have agreed to help me raise money towards my marathon fundraising target by holding a 'mini-marathon' that the children of the club can take part in by being sponsored to run laps of the pitches. At Saturday mornings training session we launched the event and I stood up in front of the children and parents dressed in the pink outfit I intend to run the marathon in. It was a very hot and sunny morning and I certainly hope conditions aren't the same on the 22nd April, because running in that wig in that heat will not be a pleasant experience. Ben and Kieran's Auntie Katie was also introduced to the children, because the invaluable help and support that CLIC Sargent have given her since being diagnosed with leukaemia is the reason why I've taken on the challenge to run the marathon to raise maoney for them.
After lunch Kieran had a birthday party at a local pub that contained a large soft play area and when that was all over the Grandparents and Aunties stayed on for a lovely meal while the boys continued to play. This ended up being quite a late night and by the end of it all we were all shattered and I thought it best that I didn't go out for a late run to test my knee only 12 hours before I was due to do my long run. So this was to be my first missed session of the training plan. I was hoping to complete 100% of the workouts in my marathon training, so I was a little dissapointed, but I told myself that its better to get the following days long run done in the best shape possible rather than take it on tired.
So Sunday was THE BIG ONE, a 22 mile progression run. The clocks went forward which was a little unfortunate, because it meant an hour less in bed, but I managed to get up and have breakfast at 7:30 and got out the door for 10:00. It was very hot and sunny, so I went out armed with 4 water bottles on my running belt and several ISO gels. The first 14 miles of the run were run at my usual long run pace and the 2 hours that it took to run that section seemed to fly by, however, for the second week running I had to make a pitsop for a wee at about the 7 mile point. This is worrying me a little, as I won't want to stop during the marathon. I think I'm going to have to sort out my pre run hydration better. I had to run the final 8 miles at my target marathon pace and miles 15-18 went well and I kept finding myself running quicker than I should've been going, but the final 4 miles were different altogether. My hips and groins really started to cease up and got steadily stiffer as I went. My pace stayed the same (except for the final mile), but I felt very uncomfortable, especially when I had to navigate any tight bends. In the end I managed to complete the 22 miles in 3 hours 1 minute which was bang on target, but one thing that concerns me a little is that I would've really struggled to run an extra 4 miles with hips and groins feeling like they did at the end.
So, a good week in the end, with hopefully just an injury scare rather than anything serious. I'm off to the physio tomorrow evening to see if he can work some magic on me to loosen up my IT band properly and to see if he can give me some advice on getting my hips and groins stronger.
Next week is the highest mileage week of the training plan ending up with a 20 mile run. Then it's the start of the taper . . . thank goodness for that !!
Week 10 Summary - 35 miles : 4hrs 47 mins
Session 1 - Recovery Run - 4 Miles
Session 2 - 3 x 10 Mins Threshold Intervals - 9 Miles
Session 3 - Missed session (Recovery Run - 5.5 Miles)
Session 4 - Progression Run - 22 Miles with last 8 miles @ Marathon Pace
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