That's Why

If you were wondering why I was running the 10 marathons for Liam's Lodge, watch this video where the Meehan family explains what Liam's Lodge would mean to them.



(This is the point where you get out your credit card out and click on this link)

We're down to 4 days to go now, and I am not entirely sure if I should rest and taper or just keep training normally. This isn't going to be a marathon race, so maybe tapering is unnecessary, but on the other hand I don't want to show up tired and hobbling for the first marathon either.

But in the end I decided to go with the theory that it is always better to be slightly undertrained than overtrained and therefore I am taking it easy, which is why I didn't do a long run this weekend.

Basically, this week has seen a succession of 10 mile runs, enough to keep me ticking over without building up extra stress, hopefully. Tuesday's mountain run was the one workout where I broke that sequence. I was pleasantly surprised by the complete absence of sore quads in the days following that, but very unpleasantly surprised by the state of my left Achilles.

It wasn't that bad, on a scale of 1-10 it was maybe a 2 for a few days and down to 1 on Saturday; in fact, I wasn't even sure if I was just imagining the discomfort yesterday. If that were an isolated incident I would not even think about it, but it is a recurring one, and just about the last thing I would want to acquire is a chronically inflamed Achilles. Actually I think it's not the tendon itself but the sheath that surrounds it, but that's only because the last time I went to a doctor about it (3 years ago), that was the problem and now it feels similar. Back then I got some ointment and the advice to take it easy. I have long run out of the medicine and as for taking it easy ... well, 10 marathons in 10 days probably don't quite satisfy that description.

I had originally planned on doing one more mountain run this weekend in place of a long run, but since it is the mountain runs that keep inflaming the Achilles I had to bin that idea and just stayed on the road instead, which had the pleasant side effect that the Achilles felt better every day; I might even get away with it for Sixmilebridge, you never know.

Friday was like the good old days, getting up at silly o'clock in order to run 10 miles before dropping off the rest of the family in Killarney for the early train to Dublin. I'm pretty sure the slower pace was down to the ridiculously early hour.

I tried running a few faster miles on Saturday but quickly found that my legs were not responding. I ran a marathon at close to 6:40 pace only 5 weeks ago, so it was a bit disconcerting that I was only barely able to keep that pace for 8 miles. I did notice that the HR just was not coming up, as if the brain were limiting the maximum output (which is of course exactly what the Central Governor theory claims). I'm not worried, I have been there before; if I were looking for pace it would come back within a few weeks with the appropriate workouts, but since pace isn't what will be required over the next few weeks there won't be any need for that.

4 days to go before the 10in10. And don't forget to click on this link, like I said.

Weekly Mileage: 74.2

27 Jun

10 miles, 1:13:48, 7:22 pace, HR 142

28 Jun

10 miles, 1:15:24, 7:32 pace, HR 138

29 Jun

10 miles, 1:07:35, 6:45 pace, HR 156
   incl. 8 miles @ 6:38 (HR 161)

30 Jun

12 miles, 1:28:39, 7:23 pace, HR 143