Taper off

And into tapering time, which is quite nice. Did my last long run last weekend, a nice and easy 18 miles, dragging along a neighbour who ran the farthest he has ever run and was therefore at the ragged edge by the end of the run. The knee is just about holding together as are both feet which also hurt well into the run. Running through the pain… hear me roar…

Had a few runs since then as well, the usual challenge of intervals and a nice couple of 6 and 10 miles and that’s that. A few more 6 milers to do and then a week on Saturday, it’s marathon day. Will be fun.

I got the doctor’s certificate saying that I’m in decent enough health to survive through the race, although I did also get an order to get a whole list of blood tests which I may do before the race (while not looking at the results until after the race so I don’t get scared). Blood tests… all the evil secrets will be revealed.

Anyway, nice and relaxed, looking forward to it, and feeling confident. Good way to approach any race. Then after that… hmmm… need to find something else to do. Some local adventure races in France methinks.

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain

Where’s the sun? It’s August, dammit.

So, aside from sun ray deficiencies kicking in, a slightly calmer running week, due to the previously mentioned niggle. Although saying that, still following the training schedule even if I have moved this week’s long run to Saturday, so a nice 18 miles to be done in France. Cool.

Mostly early morning runs this week, and I’m not sure I’ve seen differences between evening and morning runs. However, I have made an effort not to be persuaded to go out running on rest days. Especially as the marathon is 2 weeks away.

Had to book a medical with a doctor in order to get a certificate so I can run the race, no walk in and race like in the UK. In one way it’s reassuring that they care enough to check you’ll not drop down in a race, but it does make the process of race entry a bit longer and bureaucratic.

Still, all in all, normal-ness reigns. I have, however, sent in an entry form to the 2008/2009 Landrover G4 Global challenge, but will be shocked to actually get through to the trials. Only two people, working as a team, per country. Limited places really! Check it out here – http://www.landroverg4challenge.com/index.php/public/apply. Why not? Nothing to lose…

Niggle off

Driving a car, or riding a bike, you get to know the sounds and get used to them, so the moment you hear a new one, you start to concentrate on it until that is all you hear. Then you get paranoid and start to see all the crap things that could go wrong… dammit, new engine. And then you find out it was a cat trapped in the wheel (or something like that…). And all is good again.

Running is like that. You always have the odd aches & pains, but you now the good and the bad ones and when you get a bad one, you start to feel a little nervous and when it doesn’t go away, you get downright paranoid and it just starts to get worse in your mind.

Anyway, that’s me again. Dam. Went running on Saturday and ironically, just before the run I had to jump over a high wall, landed and suddenly ‘felt’ my knee. Did a decent 7 mile run at an easier pace, and no knee pain. Went away. Then in the pool on Sunday (had to throw that in for effect… place-name dropping), and my knee touched the bottom and it felt tender. Ever since then, it’s all I can feel.

Went out on interval running this morning, 5×1 miles at 6:50 min/mile pace with the usual 250m rests in between, and did it fine. The knee did ache at the end though. Doesn’t feel like Runners Knee or ITB, just feel tender to the touch, with a slight ache under the knee cap at the top of the lower leg bone thing (or whatever the medical term for it is).

Anyway, I will do the usual icing, resting, and keeping it easy for a few days or so and see. It’s not like I’m on crutches, but just don’t want to find myself 2 weeks away from my first marathon and injured. Paula Radcliffe style..

And as an aside… GB Olympic team medal greatness. Respect.

Longness

A quick post after the long run yesterday. I did 20 miles in the end (being an out and back route I was getting bored….), and clocked up a pace of 7:49 min/mile doing it in around 2h25. Much faster than I should have done, as always, but I was happy that I finished.

But… bloody hell… after finishing and cooling down, I was spaced out and was unable to eat very much. Felt like a zombie. Feeling great today though, a few aches but expected ones instead of injury ones. Still it’s pretty interesting that it seems around 16 miles that the body suddenly goes, “wtf”, and starts to scream out “stop and walk, you fool”.  Up until that point I was feeling all cocky, and then I found myself battling against the inner “stop now” demons.

Should make the Marathon Des Sables ‘interesting’…

And… back again

I got reminded yesterday that I hadn’t added anything new to the blog for a while mainly due to being away on vacation, camping in Brittany… nice, old-style simple holiday, with lots of rain compensated for with lots of crepes. Yum.

One of the nice things about going away to somewhere like Brittany is that you have a web/email blackout and after the initial shakes of withdrawal, it is surprisingly refreshing to not know exactly what’s happening in the world at a particular moment in time. So you fill your time with much more satisfying activities like… running, swimming, sea kayaking, and land sailing (char à voile in french).

I also did my longest run ever, 22 miles, and felt uncannily fresh afterwards without any lingering pain, which did wonders to boost my assertion that I can do a marathon. It was one of those great runs where you take a map and just run off in a direction and see what you find. Brilliant. Got lost naturally, and the run was only supposed to be 20 miles… but still, nice. Contrary to that, I’ve got the long 22 mile run today, but it’s out and back along a canal. Boring, not particularly inspiring, although it does have it’s pretty moments. Chuck on the music and run boy…

Anyway, all in all, everything’s on track. I can only finish with the words that, as I look out the window at the torrential rain, grey clouds and general coldness, summer 2008 in the UK is crap.