"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving them"

 

Zig Ziglar

Monday 29/04:

It's back... Marathon Monday! Having had a good rest day yesterday and the weather getting a lot more favourable it was a day’s work followed by a hound hook up and out the door.

Plan had been festering all day yesterday and watching those amazing London Marathoners complete their mission it fired me up to crack on and get the job done.

A lap of the airfield at pace with the little ones (not that I have much say in the matter) and then, after getting them settled it was straight back out for the long leg of the session.

Along the coast path to Warsash, back through the trail route and home again for some reason was bloody hard graft.

Unusually for me, my legs were proper sore at around 11 miles in and even now I don’t get why. On top of that my knees were “clunking” quite a lot. Obviously not good when you still have another 13 miles to knock out.

Decided at this point to hit the power walking / hiking to cover some distance and help get the aches and clunks to settle down.

I’d love to say that it worked but nope, no difference. Figured it was best to just man-up and get the last half done.

One good thing about being out for a few hours gives the opportunity to analyse issues and the conclusion I came to was, of late, a fair portion of my routes takes in more road running than trails. Wearing trail shoes probably ain’t the best choice but balanced against road shoe grip on the wooded areas it’s possibly the better of a naff deal.

All said and done, got home with 24 miles done but my legs defo felt it. Pain killers down the hatch usually sorts everything out and the morning I know it’ll all be OK again. 

Tuesday 30/04:

It was weird yesterday. The post run aches were the worst I’ve had since week one of training almost a year ago.

Ascending & descending stairs is normally a great way of gauging the effort of any run and for the last 10 months I’ve never had any probs.

When I got home after yesterday’s session, it wasn’t cool. Struggled up and you'd have thougt i'd been hit by a bus if you saw me coming down. Was in a whole workd of pain!!!

Fortunately, I hit the zzzzzz’s with clunking knees and sore leg muscles so, sleep with Ibuprofen and woke with absolutely no grief in the morning – strange but lucky really as I had classes to teach in the evening!

Dojo training day so no run.

Wednesday 01/05:

A mixture of injury (from dojo training last night and too comical to go in to) and work / life balance brought training to a halt for today and the best I managed was a walk with the hounds.

Sure there was a bit of disappointment but I’ve learned that pounding through an injury is not the right way to go and goes on to impact the next session.

So, we’ll see how it is tomorrow and then hopefully back out for a 16 miler.

Thursday 02/05:

Regretted not going out last night but it was the right decision I think. Made up for it tonight with an intermediate session partially with the lunatics that have four legs and then alone.

Being a little sensitive of Monday’s outcome and the injury from Tuesday we plodded and didn’t worry about the time it took. Was what it was and spending time on feet was the focus for the day.

 

Spent some time thinking about getting more hill sessions in so at some point over the weekend it’ll be power hiking around Butser Hill and the South Downs. Urgh, but it’s gotta be done!

13 miler done and no grumbles especially after Monday’s pains and Tuesday’s saga.

Tomorrow we’re all over it again! Yay :0)

Friday 03/05:

Right, the plan straight from the off was to get out there and knock out 13 miles again. No cockin’ about, just get loaded up and get the job done.

Only one more run this week before rest day (although it’ll probably end up being a hiking hills kinda rest day).

Figured the best thing to do was to have the proverbial sprint sesh with the nutters in tow (trust me, it’ll be me being towed) and then plod the remainder.

With a little planning it’ll be waterhole to waterhole for the duration, with a little bit of mucking about time for the little run companions.

Set off at the typical lightning pace and then into a more realistic pace that’s sustainable for me.

First water stop came via the Meon fresh water outlet and after letting the loons have a play it was back on it towards the next stop which is about 3 miles further.

After another river play we were heading back towards the first stop point at the outlet..

20 mins later we were on the way home with 13 miles in the mile bank.

Yeah, sure it was slow but at the end of the day, all’s good. The only down side is that look the dogs give me when we get back, that says “righto, when are we starting then”!!

Popped in to order my new shoes for the event and then the reason for the sore legs, clunking knees and general shit feeling is absolutely 100% down to the shoes being fooked.

What’s worse is that I actually blogged this when I got the last pair. I need to remind myself that since I got this pair I’ve clocked over 600 miles in the 7 weeks I’ve had them and subsequently they’re done.

The tread is a dead give away coz there ain;t much left but more importantly, the insides have been compressed ect and that my friends is that!

So, off to Alton Sports again for yet another pair. Actually, it’s two more pairs. With 3 weeks of training still to do plus the race itself it’s a prudent move to use one pair for the training and then have the new pair for the event.

Fortunately for me, these ASIC’s have never needed breaking in and never blister so I don’t have to worry about that, phew!

Collection day is Tuesday next week so between now and then it’ll be as much trail as I can and reduce the tarmac impact.

On a positive, at least I know why I hurt so much. All week I’ve been thinking I’m going backwards in my training progression when really it’s down to my incompetence with not realising the obvious.

Saturday 04/05:

Being paranoid that the knackered ASIC’s are causing more harm than good, today was hills and loads of them so, Butser Hill ahoy!

If I’d had decent shoes I’d have kitted out to jog them but in light of the situation it was more power hiking with weight.

Appreciative of the time it takes to cover large distance whilst hiking hills I took the dogs so they got a chance to run free.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park accommodates said Butser Hill and sits on the South Downs of the UK and to say it’s hilly is an understatement.

If you’re thinking of getting hill work in it’s absolutely the best place here on the South Coast.

Right from the off it’s up hill and no matter which way you go and from there it’s down again, then up, then down then repeat.

Inevitably, the “bowl” had was on the cards and if you’ve been there you’ll know it’s bloomin’ steep to a point where it’s almost a hands and feet crawl / clamber.

Two of those and I was hangin’ so it was off to do something more reasonable before returning back to get a couple more in.

The quad burn is proper painful I can tell ya but one stage of the Jungle has some horrific hills so better to experience it here I guess.  

Various trails later and plenty of ups we’d covered 6 miles and a total of 1,500 feet in elevation so quite happy with that considering I’ve not done the amount of hill work I’d have liked.

Rest day Sunday 05/05:  And did bugger all.

Next week is well into taper period so only got 54 miles to slot in and with a Bank Holiday here in the UK it’ll be a short one Monday as opposed to the usual Marathon Monday. Not because I’m wimping out but because I’ve only got knackered trainers until the new ones arrive on Tuesday.

Considering I had Wednesday off with injury the weekly total still came in at 56 miles for the week so I’m fairly happy and if I take it as an extra taper week it’s no big deal.

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