Watch that Foot

After Tuesday’s tempo run it was time for another long(-ish) effort on Wednesday. In fact, this was my last long run before the race, because, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I intend to have some taper for this race. I originally intended to do 15 miles, but then changed my mind, because I’m pretty sure that a lack of endurance will not be my problem during a half-marathon. So I cut it down to 13, mainly because it meant another 15 minutes of sleep.

The legs just took off, and I went along for the ride. My mp3 player got fried during Monday’s rain (it did that before and recovered eventually), and I've rejoined the silent masses, at least temporarily. I felt surprisingly good, Tuesday’s tempo effort didn’t seem to have much effect on the legs. The turnaround point is on top of a big hill, so the second half was always bound to be faster than the first one, but I still didn’t expect to cover the 6.5 return miles in about 49 minutes (7:32 pace). Wow! I wasn’t even trying to push the pace. The whole run took a few seconds over 1:41, which is pretty much the time I ran for the race last year, and that was my PR back then. Sure, the workout was a bit shorter than 13.1 miles, but it certainly bodes well for Sunday week.

There had to be a drawback to such a run, and it came with less than 2 miles to spare. All of a sudden my right foot started acting up again. It was a different pain than last time, all of a sudden my toes started to feel sort of numb, which brought back all kinds of worries about a neuroma. I didn’t get the sharp pain with every toe-off, just a weird sensation in my foot. And it was while wearing my favourite Asics Nimbus, so it’s definitely not just the Nike 360’s who are to blame. I’m a little bit worried about this, but not really for the race. If I get a pain with 2 miles to go I can always grind my teeth together and push through it. Even if it slows me down, it won’t cost too much.

Since that run had been much faster than originally intended I decided to take it easy again today, with 8 miles at a slower pace, plus I added a few strides to the second half. After a few rainy days the weather has turned very nice again and I ran in glorious sunshine. That should bode well for tomorrow – it’s the twins’ birthday, and with about 30 kids invited the bouncy castle and the climbing frame in the garden will be vital. I hope the house will still stand by the time the festivities have ended.

25 Apr: 13 miles, 1:41:17, 7:46 pace, avg. HR 154
25 Apr: 8 miles, 1:04:05, 8:00 pace, avg. HR 150, including 8x100 strides