Niggles

I'm not sure if it’s time to get worried about my shin/foot problem or if I should just ignore it. For a while I thought it might be shin splint which I haven’t had in 6 years, but I think the sore area is too close to the foot for that to be the case. The affected area is right at the front of my shin, about 1 - 2 inches above ankle height. Yesterday, Tuesday, it was really sore but today I'm already feeling better. The plan right now is to take it easy tomorrow and Friday, which was always the idea because of Saturday’s half marathon, get through that race in one piece and then pick up the pieces.

It’s funny, in 4 weeks I’m going to pace the 3:30 group in Dublin. That’s my fourth time as a pacer and I had some fairly serious trouble before each and every one of them. Then again, I got through all of the previous attempts perfectly fine and expect the same outcome again. I know Niamh wouldn’t be too happy if I had to bail out on Dublin. That stay in a 5-star hotel before the race was one of the main reasons why she thinks having a runner in the house is a good thing.

It’s rather telling that the one run I did not feel any pain was on Sunday on the trail. I did notice some discomfort on the 2 miles back home, running on road. There are two problems with trails though. One, I need to run a couple of miles each way on the road to get to them, which makes them a rather pointless option for anything but the long run. Two, I cannot run on those trails in the dark; it would not be safe, especially on my own. I can still get onto the trail over the weekend on occasions, but realistically the majority of my miles will always be on the road.

Hurting shin or not, I took it reasonably easy on Monday and Tuesday. I can still tune out completely, which means the problem can’t be THAT bad (at least that’s my theory). I added two faster segments to today’s run. The original idea was to run 4 miles at close to half-marathon effort, but then switched that to 1 + 2 miles at tempo effort with an easy mile in the middle. I just wanted to get a feel for the pace without tiring myself out. Just like last Wednesday, the 20mph wind had an impact, though it didn’t feel as strong as last week (the weather site says otherwise, though. Maybe Caragh Lake is more sheltered than the road to Killorglin). I averaged 6:33 pace into the wind and 6:24 with the wind, which has me reasonably hopeful that I can go under 6:30 on Saturday, maybe even on a tough course like Valentia which starts with a murderous 3 mile climb. I guess I’ll find out.

26 Sep

8 miles, 1:02:49, 7:51 pace, HR 142

27 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:54, 7:47 pace, HR 146

28 Sep

8 miles, 56:35, 7:041 pace, HR 156
   incl. 1 mile @ 6:33 (HR 164), 2 miles @ 6:24 (HR 166)