Holding on to Sanity

My exercise withdrawal isn’t getting better, and I really can’t wait for the marathon. Somehow I’ll have to try and survive the next 11 days without going nuts. It’s a challenge.

As predicted, I didn’t run on Wednesday. I had to go to Shannon Airport, and my mum’s flight did not arrive until 23:15. It’s a long drive home, and by the time I went to bed, the clock said 1:48. The last thing I did before falling asleep was to turn off the alarm. A little bit of extra sleep was much more important than 8 or so miles on the road, and I can make up for it on Saturday anyway.

I did run for 8 miles this morning, and even though I didn’t feel very well or very fast, I reached the turnaround point in less than 32 minutes. Since the first 2 miles had been around 8:20 pace, I guess that means the next 2 were about 7:40. It didn’t feel that fast, but it did feel tougher than marathon pace. I did the second half slower because I added 8x100 strides to the mix.

Tomorrow will be the last strenuous workout, 8 miles with 3x1600 repeats. I’m actually looking forward to a bit of speed work now, but I probably won’t feel like that halfway through the first repeat. I hope the weather will be ok. It has been really changeable in the last few days; the next rain shower is never far away.

I’ve got two areas that are bothering me. One is a pain in my left hamstring. This developed quite a few weeks ago, just after my problem with the left calf/achilles. I thought it was a follow-on injury, but it’s still there. Some days I can run with hardly any sign of pain, on other days it’s much more pronounced. However, the other pain is worse. It’s in my right quads, and it started about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Originally it hurt only for the first minute or so of each run, but now it’s there all the time, and it’s not going away. I had hoped the reduced mileage would clear both problems, but no such luck yet. Neither of them are taper-induced phantom pains, because both areas started to hurt well before the taper began. By now I’m resigned to the fact that they will most likely still be there on marathon day, but I’m reasonably sure that they won’t bother me too badly. Once the fatigue gets worse than the muscle pain, I’ll have something else to concentrate on. As long as neither muscle seizes up on me during the race, I will be ok.

19 Oct: 8 miles, 1:06, 8:15 pace, including 8x100 strides