Training Log Archive: Thumper

Planned rest day.

Achilles sore. I'm so glad I stopped.

Onwards and upwards now. Had a good old think about my upcoming goals and I've decided to go all in for XC.

Main focus this side of Christmas will be mileage, but I think I'm gonna race Sefton. Id love to run well at this race and its a bit of a nemesis. If there is any fitness banked from the past few weeks I'd love it to show it's face here.

I did contemplate going for a 10k pb at Abbey Dash/Telford/Ribble Valley but the Dash clashes with the National XC relays and to be honest although Telford is fast I'm not a fan of the course, it feels like a bit of a cheat since they tip you down a hill that you never run back up

So XC it is, poss with Ribble Valley or Trafford if the Yorkshires jinx re-surfaces.

Just need to get this achilles/ calf healed now!

The final blog you'll be pleased to know :) https://marathonsense.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/ber...

C • Hang on... 1

Easy shakeout in Tiergarten with Tom Bailey and Mike.

Woke up feeling headachy and head coldy. Calf survived the run feeling a little tight, but no issues around the achilles.

The hotel is at the 4k point of the race- gives me the opportunity to make an early call…so that is the plan.

My biggest concern is carbo loading and not running very far!!

Tried a little pick up, marathon pace feels a very tall order which surprised me as I've only had 3 days off.

Did a shakeout run with Mike and Tom to Tiergarten, feeling tired from an early start and pretty lethargic hopefully due to being quite dehydrated.

Still not sure what to do, but will keep weighing things up as the weekend progresses

Had a very aggressive massage last night, a last minute panic booking. Went to bed with it feeling sore but woke up with the achilles feeling a bit better- in fact no pain around the achilles which (re-assuringly) confirmed my hope that it wasn't a tendonitis, but a very tight calf pulling on the tendon.

My dilemma today was whether to continue resting and hope everything settles for sunday (six days completely off), not an option, no point.

Continue resting and call this the start of my break and just tuck into my winter training when things are settled (or go for Abbey Dash)

Or, try a run and if its ok take an easy jog each day in Berlin and toe the line.

As you can probably imagine, me being me, this has been an emotional few days. I desperately would like to know what shape this training block leaves me in, but I also really want to enjoy the XC season.

I certainly don't want to run on Sunday and jeopardise next season. At the same time I was just really, really looking forward to running a marathon, the gentle increase of pain leading to the big crescendo and painful last few miles, I'm hungry for it.

I decided to try a run and went to the lake to allow a quick escape if required. It went quite well, my left glut and hammy were stiff and I was aware of my calf but it didn't get worse- the pain could well be from the butchering last night.

In fact the biggest limiter was the cold I've picked up from Soph.

So… rather than go to Berlin all depressed I'm gonna go with the intent of running. I'm gonna do a light jog each day and hope it all comes together. I'm relieved really, as I could see myself just drinking a LOT of German beer all weekend and wasting precious money.

Psychologically I've conceded the race, so anything from here is a bonus. Even if the calf plays ball I feel a bit under the weather, so I now have low hopes. I'm not gonna put myself through any torture either, unless I get very far into the race at a good pace. Enjoying the winter is too important to me

C • Best of luck 2

Too painful to run and also have developed Sophie's cold. After much faffing last night its quite clear its my achilles, not really something I'd want to be taking risks with. Will see what tomorrow brings

Didn't see this all happening, knocked me for 6 a bit

C • Fingers crossed for you... 2

Failed run.

Headed to Grassmoor and planned to do 3 laps of the 1k loop before heading out on the trail if things felt well.

They didn't and I managed one lap. My achilles/peroneal/whatever it is, isn't happy. I could have kept going but I didn't want to make it worse.

I got a massage with Rich on Sunday, he wondered if it was a stress fracture. I don't think it is, but whatever it is couldn't have come at a worse time.

I don't really know how to move forward from here. I guess just take each day as it comes, I'm pretty gutted and sulky right now. I've always said that when my running "career" comes to a close, I just want to say I trained as hard as I could for something and got to see where that took me. I thought this race was going to be the one. Even if I ran shit I would have left Berlin happy.

What I don't want is to spend the next few days not running and then DNF or run shit and be able to blame this. There's no point cross training as what I really need is to keep in touch with the impact.

Serves me right for starting a sodding blog. Oh well.

Planned rest day.Calf so, so sore today- hopefully from the massage but I think this week is going to be a roller coaster.

Gonna be a challemge balancing healing of the calf with keeping running as I don't want to run the marathon without being happy with the impact...grrr

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Headed to Holmebrook after work for 15*1min of 1 min jog. Relaxed and at the same pace as my mile reps the other day.

Was anxious how my calf would feel as I was aware of it all day at work- it felt fine running- totally fine.

Frustratingly it tightenes up when I stopped.
I went for a Anne'saasage straight Fter and got a total pummelling as my gluts really are in a bad way- he also worked really hard on my calf

Session wise it felt a breeze

IW.

So bloody niggly…eeek.

Nice to see the pace starting to pick up for no extra effort but my glut niggles are still present and are affecting my lower hamstrings.

Worse till my left calf appears to have balled up for no reason. All in my head? Sadly not :(

Plod to the pub near Linacre for tea with my girls, been good this week but a little anxious about my left glut/hammy and working this weekend, so allowed myself a treat night- 2 pints and a nice pub meal

Session of 3x1mile/2mins, 3 x 1k/90secs

After a tentative warm up I decided to at least try the session. Legs remain niggly but I couldn't do it any other day, so opted to just drop out if any warning signs.

As it stood I managed to survive the session feeling ok, with a minor (and new) left calf niggle.

Times were pleasant considering just trying to get through it.
Miles 4.49, 4.51, 4.50

Ks 2.57, 2.57, 2.57

Last major session now save for a short sharpener on Sunday and 3 x mile on Wed, just need that race number!

IW easy plod, worrying about my niggles

Easy one around holmebrook- pretty flat form trying to cut back on food

Very conscious of the right hammy/ITB so kept the pace uber easy

HFW
Feel well rested but worried about might right glut/hamstring took it super easy to try and keep it at bay but also just really want to freshen up this week

Feel fine following yesterday which is great.

The hamstring survived but my glut is very contracted and tight today which is not ideal. Gonna be a close one getting it ready in time for Berlin, fingers crossed

Vale of York Half marathon
Decided to aim for a marathon pace in this- a time that had regularly shown up on the garmin in long sessions was 5.23- so I set myself a target of 13 5.23 splits… heres how it went…
1 5:22 148 bpm
2 5:22 158 bpm
3 5:23 158 bpm
4 5:27 158 bpm
5 5:21 158 bpm
6 5:20 159 bpm
7 5:20 160 bpm
8 5:21 159 bpm
9 5:26 160 bpm
10 5:21 160 bpm
11 5:22 160 bpm
12 5:23 159 bpm
13 5:18 162 bpm

Close but no cigar! 5.22 pace average, but a 70.50 finish time.

Please with the time for the effort, legs felt crap before- really need to get them recovered now r I'm going to lose all my training in training.

I don't think I could repeat that twice sadly, but I do think I'm in great shape if I can stay healthy

Easy plod- left hip now the niggly one- defo ready for taper and a good massage.

Starting to get very paranoid about my race number! Stressing me out a bit!

Morning plod, rubbish night sleep sharing a bed with Sophie.

Hammy feeling less weird but feeling a bit achey generally.

Much of the run spent stressing about the fact that I don't appear to be entered for Berlin!!

Plod post Yorkshire Wildlife Park, spent most of this refreshing my e mails to see if I had got my number sorted. I haven't

Tired

Hatti has headed off to the Mountain running champs so in order to keep up with training I tok an hours annual leave and headed to my folks to get amid-week long run in.

Right still feeling odd. No pain or anything just that odd sensation before it ripped at Sheff half, so binned the planned efforts and ran easy not wanting to stir anything up.

Hoped to stretch more but getting Sophie down without mummy was taxing so just stayed in bed with her!

Hopefully a few easy days will settle it, will be sad if I can't do Sunday as I'm looking forward it it!

IW
Left quad grumbling but other than that legs happy. Still got this odd sensation in my right hammy though.

Absolutely wet through-so humid!

HFW.

Aware of the right hammy, but no real issue of note…one of those weird ones where you don't know if ur being daft or not.

Then.. a very upbeat favourite song of mine came on the i pod, and in the heat of the moment enjoying my run I felt my right hammy spasm.
I stopped immediately and it soon settled, but its clear that it isn't happy.

I think my gluts and quads and ultimately hammies are all generally a bit fatigued. Despite my biggest ever training block and a tough few weeks I feel great in myself. But its time to back off

Nice easy few days coming up, hopefully the legs will be happy to run the half on Sunday.

Morning plod, pleased to see that the legs had recovered, but feeling a bit heavy- think due to the crazy mugginess of the day!

Became concerned about a funny sensation in my right hamstring which was similar to when it randomly tore at Sheff half. Spent much of the day concerned whether a sessions was wise

Decided to warm up and start the session on the proviso I dropped out at the slightest twinge. Andy is also struggling with his hip so conversation was a little dry tonight- two lads close to a marathon feeling niggly!

Session of 20mins/2mins, 4 x mile/2mins, 20 mins

Off the pace of Andy for the initial 2 minuter but he unfortunately (but sensibly) then canned it.

Miles were way quicker than expected but felt controlled final 20mins was good but the pace was starting to drop. I was absolutely soaked through afterwards such was the humidity, can't remember anything like it!

Hammy behaved totally fine so potentially just a phantom pain, but after the insidious onset of the tear last year I need to be smart with it.

Miles were quick, but the watch is just totally over measuring so paces very flattering-Andy finished in front of me and his 20min pace was c5.25. Great to get a session done in difficult conditions as the way its looking, race day could be hot! Left quad tight after

20 min 5.20 HR 149
Miles 4.45 (160), 4.46 (160), 4.41 (162), 4.43 (163)
20 min 5.20 HR 158

Planned rest day

Rubbish at getting to sleep last night and tired today for it.

Must concentrated on sleep and diet this week!

Fuck me. Call of the search, that was the worst run of the build-up!!

Expected a slog and asked if we cold do the add ons before 2 big laps of howden/derwent. Soooo glad we did as after lap one I was ready to jack it in!!

Just generally achey after two tough weeks. Ready for taper time now.

This week won't be much fun as despite running 5 weeks at 100 miles now, amazingly I'm a bit overweight. So…after a broadfield and 3 beers with Andy this afternoon to recover from our ordeal (both feeling it), its time for a food cutback week and one last c. 100 miler.

How it is structured is legs dependent. As it stands I'm hoping to do a big session and a light session in a medium long run before a session at Vale of York HM… may drop the medium long though if legs till sore.

Something else I may do is back off the paces in sessions, if needed.

Nice and easy up to Linacre.

Left glut a bit tight but felt better than expected

A little plod around Holmebrook whilst Sophie let off some steam in the park post Finding Dory. First time at the cinema for her and for some reason I found it a bit emotional! I'm getting soft.

Met Zak and Andy at Rother Valley for 4 x 15 mins/2 mins (2 mile warm up and down)

Another crap week at work which just seemed to get worse and worse. So felt a bit jaded and lacklustre (and thirsty) for this session. A bit leggy also.

I was off the pace of Andy for rep one but didn't force it and the final 3 reps were pretty respectable. Defo a session with replicated feeling shite in the second half of the marathon!

Rep 1 5.30 (154)
Rep 2 5.23 (158)
Rep 3 5.24 (160)
Rep 4 5.28 (160)

HR a little higher than normal for this type of session- I still felt relaxed and in marathon mode, but perhaps the paces highlight the flattering nature of holmebrook sessions

Morning plod around Holmebrook. Lovely morning.

HFW

Energy levels fine but legs a bit heavy