At the end of my last post I mentioned that I needed to keep an eye on my right ankle as it tends to start hurting at the end of a long run. Well, I managed a 12 mile run on Sunday going along the canal that runs around the Ealing area. It was a great run and one I look forward to. I try not to repeat the route too often for fear that it will become boring. Once per training schedule seems to be the right amount as I get to see the canal with new eyes each time. This time I noticed the smell of a wood burning stove coming from one of the canal boats. An evocative smell that reminds me of barbecues and summer. Also, there were plenty of birds around; coots, moorhens, geese, ducks and swans (no herons though unfortunately). Plenty to distract from the running.
Anyway, the last couple of miles are on the pavement back to my house and my ankle started to hurt again. Ok, I thought, lets just finish this run off and then rest for the day.
The next morning was a 5 mile recovery run. About half way through the ankle started aching again! I finished the run and decided to take action. I have not run this morning. I was due to do some interval training and as much as I hate missing training runs I thought discretion is the better part of valour and all that! I'm going to go for a four mile easy run tomorrow to see how it holds up and if it's ok then I'll carry on with the schedule.
What this means is that my chances of running the Chester half are becoming remote. If my ankle doesn't get stronger then my chances of training for the Chester full marathon in October will be in jeopardy. Treatment for the problem (which is known as post tibial tendonitis) vary from getting orthotics inserted to complete rest. I have some orthotics that I can use so we'll see how it responds to that. I would much rather do that than to have to stop running altogether.
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Tuesday 18 March 2014
Wait, what about weight
Just after Xmas my weight had ballooned up to 86kgs. This was due to two reasons, the usual festive overindulgence and the fact that I was recovering from injury so could not run as much as I wanted to.
Anyway, now I've been running longer distances and putting in more miles per week for the last two months my weight is now down to just under 83kgs. I'm hoping that by the end of the training schedule I will be down to 80kgs or preferably less. This will put me in a great position for marathon training, which should start at the beginning of June.
At the moment I'm in two minds whether to actually enter a half-marathon at the end of this training schedule. I had timed it so I could run in the Chester half-marathon but now I'm not so sure. It's a long way to go just to run a race. My wife owns a house in Chester but this is now being rented out so we would have to arrange to stay with one of her family. I'm still going to follow the schedule but may look for another race closer to home. Otherwise I will treat this as pre-marathon training. To be honest I always prefer the training to the racing. I'm a killer for a training plan!
My running is going well at the moment. The interval and tempo runs are difficult but feeling more manageable as my fitness gets better and better. My right ankle grumbles now and then but it's not constant and only occurs at the end of a long run. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on it.
Anyway, now I've been running longer distances and putting in more miles per week for the last two months my weight is now down to just under 83kgs. I'm hoping that by the end of the training schedule I will be down to 80kgs or preferably less. This will put me in a great position for marathon training, which should start at the beginning of June.
At the moment I'm in two minds whether to actually enter a half-marathon at the end of this training schedule. I had timed it so I could run in the Chester half-marathon but now I'm not so sure. It's a long way to go just to run a race. My wife owns a house in Chester but this is now being rented out so we would have to arrange to stay with one of her family. I'm still going to follow the schedule but may look for another race closer to home. Otherwise I will treat this as pre-marathon training. To be honest I always prefer the training to the racing. I'm a killer for a training plan!
My running is going well at the moment. The interval and tempo runs are difficult but feeling more manageable as my fitness gets better and better. My right ankle grumbles now and then but it's not constant and only occurs at the end of a long run. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on it.
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Need for speed
My training schedule was written by pace rather than heart rate. For a 1:35 finish time this meant that all the runs were a little bit faster than I am comfortable with (what with coming back from a slight injury and all).
I decided to change this to heart rate. This should allow me to improve both my fitness and speed without straining my body too much. Getting injured again is definitely not on my priority list, whereas avoiding injury is! I've still kept pace in the plan for intervals of 1.25km and less as it is hard to train by heart rate for those distances.
So far it's going well. It's quite hard to keep my heart rate below 134bpm for long runs but as long as I keep on flattish roads then it's achievable and I can still keep a decent speed.
This morning I ran the 600m interval session again. Again it was hard going but I was faster than last week although I was exhausted by the end. To think that in 10 weeks' time I need to run 13.1 miles at not much slower than the interval speed from this morning is almost unthinkable. Hopefully my fitness will improve in time. If not then I will readjust my targets.
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