Born Under a Bad Sign

I'm finally in taper mode and my last weeks running went pretty good for the most part. After the 20 miler on 14th I had a easy 5 miler on the Monday and managed to churn out 5 x 1 mile repeats at 6 minute pace at the Tuesday track session.

Following 10 miles easy in the vibrams on Wednesday morning and a day off (2.5 miles on the dreadmill) Thursday I was ready for another marathon pace run on Friday morning. As I had the day off and the kids were off school I had a lie-in until 7 am before heading out the door for about 10 miles at MP. The warmup 1.5 mile were at 7:30 pace followed by 10 miles @ 6:41 pace (1:06:50). I kept my warmdown pace pretty steady and upped the distance to get a half marathon in 1:29:22 (6:49 pace overall). A 28 mile bike ride in the afternoon with Adrian left me completely dead - no energy at all, which surprised me - the week was finally catching up with me. The hilly long run with Eagle on Saturday morning was a struggle after about 8 miles, despite the easy pace, as my right calf began to ache and the gel at mile 10 did nothing to lift me energy levels. I cut the run short at 16.3 miles (shortest route home) and rested up Sunday and Monday to get a bit of recovery in. I gave my calves a good going over with the foam roller and surprisingly it was my left calf that appeared to have all the knots in it despite the dull ache in the right.

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I decided to play safe at the track last night and keep the mile repeats close to marathon pace and see how I got on. I fell in with the group running 6:30 pace and covered 2 repeats (actual pace 6:37/35). My right calf began to tighten up during the 2nd mile so I decided to play safe and reverted to easy pace running for the rest of the session. Another easy 5 miler in the park today and while there was no pain I could feel the tightness in my calf, always conscious of it and the fact that I would probably not be able to sustain a hard effort for very long without doing some damage.

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I don't know if there's any benefit in continuing with easy running as it may delay any recovery/repair that is going on and i'm leaning towards resting up for the next week, switching to the bike, and testing the legs again next Wednesday for the traditional "marathon gear test" where i'll do a couple of MP miles in the gear I intend using on the day. I can't say i'm injured as I can run comfortably but I want to be able to race comfortably hard come Sunday week.

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While things are not quite as bad as they seem and i'm still confident i'll be fighting fit come Sunday week the lyrics of Creams "Born Under a Bad Sign" come to mind -"If it wasn't for real bad luck I wouldn't have no luck at all".

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Mon 15th Feb

5.31 miles in 47:58 (9:02 pace @ 114 HR) Vibrams

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Tue 16th Feb

2.5 miles in 19:48 (7:56 pace - Treadmill)

8.78 miles in 1:08:08 (7:45 pace) with 5 x 1,664m in 6:12/10/11/12/08 (target 6:12)

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Wed 17th Feb

10.11 miles in 1:26:16 (8:32 pace @ 118 HR) Vibrams

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Thur 18th Feb

2.5 miles in 19:48 (7:56 pace - Treadmill)

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Fri 19th Feb

13.13 miles in 1:29:22 (6:48 pace @ 144HR?) w/10 miles @ 6:41 pace.

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Sat 20th Feb

16.35 miles in 2:18:09 (8:27 pace @ 119 HR)

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Training week # 13 - 58.68 miles

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Tue 23rd Feb

2.5 miles in 19:48 (7:56 pace - Treadmill)

6.41 miles in 50:54 (7:56 pace @ 122 HR) w/2 x 1,664m in 6:49/47.

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Wed 24th Feb

5.44 miles in 44:33 (8:11 pace @ 117 HR)

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