Here are the final words from my last post - "Finger's crossed that I don't pick up any injuries over the next 21 days". To say I may have jinxed things would be an understatement! Oh, the delicious irony!
On Wednesday I ran an innocuous easy paced six miler. I felt no problems during the run and really enjoyed it. Compared to the 22 mile run I had done on the weekend it felt like a little jog around the park. During the day I felt a twinge in my calf. My right calf. The calf that had put me out of action for four months earlier in the year. No worries, I thought, it's just a bit of muscle fatigue. Nothing that a bit of rest won't clear up.
The next day I was due to run 10 miles at marathon pace. I got up at 5:30 and headed out the door. About two hundred yards down the road I could still feel the twinge in my calf. No problem, I decided, I'll abandon today's run and rest it up further. After all I had run all my long training runs and any runs I was now doing was just ticking the old legs over a bit until race day.
On the Friday morning I got up and went for an easy five mile run. I chose to do one of my favourite routes that I hadn't run for quite some time. Halfway through the run I could feel the twinge in my calf again. Bugger, I thought. I was running on a path around a playing field at the time so decided to run on the grass instead to help ease up the pain. This worked until the grass ran out and I had to go back on to the concrete path. The pain shot up my leg and forced me to stop completely. I abandoned the run and walked disconsolately back to my house.
Since then I haven't run at all and have had to seriously consider the fact that I am about 80% certain that I will not be running the Chester marathon in two weeks' time. My leg is currently strapped in a compression tube and I am trying to stay off it as much as possible.
So, what is my plan of attack?
From experience I know that the chances of my leg healing in time for the marathon is very slim indeed. I will rest the leg for a week. If I feel no pain at all at the end of this week and am able to do 20 single calf raises without pain then I will go out for a four or five mile run to see if it holds up. If it does then I will follow the training plan for the final week and do the marathon as planned although I don't think I will be able to go for the 3:30 finish time that I was training for. I would be pleased at this stage just to finish in one piece!
If I still have pain in my leg at the end of the week or there is any recurrence of pain during the build up to the marathon then I will pull out of the marathon. I can't take any risks, especially after being out for four months earlier this year. I will rest the leg for three to four weeks and then follow the return to training plan that I had used previously. Hopefully this will mean that I will be back to full fitness in time to start training for a spring marathon.
Obviously I have a weakness in my right calf so I think that I'm going to have to perform strengthening exercises from now on, no matter how good I think my leg feels.
If you are wondering, I am not that annoyed. This was always a possibility considering that it was previously injured. I'm a bit angry at myself for not strengthening it and I am a bit confused as to the timing. You would have thought that if it was going to go then it would have happened immediately after my longest run, not three runs later!
At the end of the day I run for the enjoyment and use races to help me focus my training. They are not the be all and end all. If I can't run this marathon and it happens again when I'm training for my next marathon then maybe I will have to consider the fact that I can't run marathons any more. But, as I say, as long as I get to a point where I can run again then I will be happy.
Here's my unfinished run from Friday. I will update next week, either after I've completed a four mile run or after I've decided to pull out of the marathon. Stay tuned!
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