THE GOOD BUCK

It’s all getting very real now. I’ve got just under 7 weeks until my race. I did a quick blog last week moaning that I didn’t think I could do it. As I was writing it, the solution occurred to me: up the pace. It sounds obvious, but I was doing Camille’s plan after Garmin fooled me into thinking I was a lot faster than I actually am. That left me behind on my training. Then I panicked and went back to Advanced Marathoning plan but that says “do the long runs at marathon pace +10- 20%”. Which works, but I’ve no longer got the time to gradually build up my fitness. I remembered, as I was doing the blog, that when I started the plan it was after 2 months of no running. All the different run times (medium, fast, easy) were all the same to me because that was all I had. I set aspirational times and worked towards them, even though it nearly killed me. Within 8 weeks I had set an new half marathon PB. So what I’ve done is bump up all my run times. My long, fast run used to be 7.30 – 8.12, it’s now 6.50 – 7.15. my new watch finally arrived. I was waiting and going insane, checking my email and the order status several times a day. They said I had to wait 3 -5 weeks for stock to come in. After 4 weeks I noticed they had a chat button on the site so I asked how long for my order. Apparently, even though I’d rung them to change my card details 3 weeks before, and rang back the next day to confirm it, they hadn’t updated my card and hadn’t told me. They told me to ring again. While I was on hold I checked the website, watches in stock, so I put the ‘phone down, cancelled my order and ordered it again with my new card. It arrived 2 days later. In with calm. Deep breaths. 4 weeks! Anyway, it’s arrived and it actually is a great watch. Brilliant tracking and great pace tracking. Which is exactly what I need. And big, clear display, visible even if I’m not wearing glasses. Fantastic. The not so good is it’s packed with other data and features, one of which is a race predictor. It said (after I’d ran in it 3 times) that it estimated my marathon time to be 3.10. That’s only a snapshot guess, and it will get more accurate the more I use it (2 more runs and it’s already revised it down to 3.08) but it was enough to make me panic a bit more. Today was a 20 mile run on my plan, so I decided to see where I am. I wanted to run the first 10 miles at 6.50 (sub 3 pace), the second at 7.10. I failed, but not by much. I was only 2 seconds too slow in total over […]

It’s now 8 weeks until my target marathon. I really don’t think I’m going to do it. That Garmin blip that put me at 1.26 for the half marathon has really screwed me over. I was kind of relaxing and going with Camille’s plan, confident it was all working. Now I’m back on Advanced Marathoning, on the 70 mile a week plan, desperately trying to make up lost ground. I had another shop and bought some of the brand new Saucony Endorphin Pro 3s. The YouTube review if them said they were marginally better than the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2, that I currently have. I was cautious about the Saucony because although I love the “speedroll” tech (a rocker shape in the sole to fling you forward, so make your foot turnover really quick) it was battering my knees in my old Speed 2s. Also they are quite narrow and squashy. Since I’ve got plantar I’ve been running in the 2s quite a bit and I seem to have got used to them, so I took the plunge. I took them for a test ride today. The plan said 17 miles (at mara pace +10- 20%) I decided to do two miles warm up (+10%) then go for it for a half marathon. I tried to be fancy with my the settings on my watch to record the warm up, the half separately, and the warm down. It failed completely. So I had no idea how I was doing overall on the half attempt because it was including the average of the first two miles. Meh. I just had to go for it. The good news is the shoes are way wider than the Speeds, really soft, and fast. The bad news is I took a gamble on half a size up, to give me a bit of extra toe room, and my right foot got the numb/pain I get when cycling in cleats, from pressure under the pads of my foot. I’m hoping that the padding will give a bit. Anyway, I struggled around 5 laps of my new course. A mile or so of each lap was into the wind, which, although it wasn’t a stiff wind, when you are already at your limit, doesn’t help. Anyway, I had no idea how I’d done until I got home, uploaded the data and worked it out. 1.29:06 for a half. That’s good, (that’s great for a half, for me) but I need to be 1.25 they say, to be in sub 3 contention. And it was about all I had to do the 13.1 miles, I couldn’t have held that pace for another 13.1. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it. I’ve got a 20 mile long run next week, 16 miles with 12 at mara pace the week after and 21 miles the week after that. Then Warrington Half, Chester marathon, and 3 weeks later my target marathon. I think I’ll up the pace of […]

Just a quick update on the plantar problem. I’ve been doing the stretches, and I’ve started properly warming up before runs (which I should have been doing from day one) and I think it’s very manageable. My heels are sore and it’s less than ideal, but it’s nothing like the day that made me consult Doctor Google. That day I got up, no warm up, and blasted out 14 miles at 7.29 m/m (mara pace +10%). The rest of the day I could barely walk. Every time I sat down it took me minutes of shuffling to get my feet to stop hurting enough to be able to walk properly. I was scared that was how it was going to be after every run, which probably wouldn’t have been sustainable. It definitely wouldn’t have been sustainable if the pain got worse as the condition of my plantar deteriorated. Those were my thoughts and fears. I did a long (18 miles), quite nippy, run the other day and my feet were sore, but not terrible. Then I tried to go fast. The plan said 5 miles running, (which I did at 7.37) then 5 miles at half marathon pace. My half pace is only my target mara pace (6.50) at the mo, so I pushed a bit harder. I wanted 6.30, averaged 6.40. Meh. The point is, I was going hard. My feet were OK the next day, once I’d got over the ‘getting out of bed and stretching’ bit. I bought gel insoles for my work boots, I’m wearing trainers around the house (to keep my feet from striking hard surfaces) and I’m stretching and massaging, (and warming up). I think it’s going to be enough. This level of soreness is nothing to fuss over. I’ve still not managed to do back to back runs to test that out. I was supposed to be getting up early yesterday morning to do a 15 mile run (which would have made today 3 days on the bounce, a proper test) but on Thursday some fool went half through the lights, they changed to amber, and he slammed on. He was already through, I thought I was going, suddenly he stopped dead. Me, in a dirty great truck, not so much. Work have been good about it, I’ve just got to go out with the driver trainers and practice leaving bigger gaps, but I’ve already driven one shift since, and I’m booked for 2 more next week, so it’s not like they are taking it too seriously. The long and short of that was I had to stand by my ‘phone from early o’clock yesterday in case they called me in for the training before my shift, or sacked me off. So no run. I felt a lot better about it after I’d done another shift. It always gives your confidence a knock, and makes you want to quit driving and get a job as lollypop lady, or hitman, or something. It does […]

I’ve been training for 9 months, 5 and 6 days a week, coming from 2 months of zero running and nearly killing myself to get here (which, to be fair, is how I like to train), I’m 10 weeks off my target marathon and I’ve landed a pretty major injury. For a week or so I’d been moaning to Wendy about sore heels. I thought it might be the new slogging trainers I bought, they are made to be everyday trainers so very durable. The first run in them felt like running in boots. Stiff boots. Possibly boots with wooden insoles. (They don’t feel so bad now.) Then I switched back to the Advanced Marathoning training plan, which takes no prisoners. I did a 15 mile run at “marathon pace +10%” which is 7.30m/m for me. I went to work and every time I got out of my truck it was taking me a few minutes of limping around, shuffling little steps, until my feet started working again. That is definitely not right. I had a look and Doctor Google said it’s clear cut Plantar Fasciitis. It some sort of nerve or tendon or something that runs along the sole of the foot. It gets inflamed and can be pretty damned uncomfortable. The treatments are all about rest and stretching. The first one I read said it can take from 2 months to a year but it should clear up completely. Obviously that’s no good for me. I gave it 3 days rest and had a catastrophic failure of mojo. I was ready for throwing in the towel. Not just on my sub 3 challenge, but running altogether. It was weird. I just felt utterly beaten down and sad. Happily that passed. The causes seem to be; worn down trainers not providing enough shock absorption (they say change trainers are 400 -600 miles, I’m on 573 for my old everyday pair. They have been sacked off.), being obese (nope), over training (well duh!), and not warming up before training (guilty). So today I went out for a test run. I wore soft trainers, did plantar massage and stretches, warmed up, kept the pace to the slower end of the ‘marathon pace +10-20%’, and did as much of the run off tarmac as I could. Basically everything I could do to try and manage the damage. I did 18 miles at 7.54 m/m. And it’s very tolerable. You don’t feel it while you are moving. It’s when you stop and it sets. Then you start to move and you really feel it. However, it was a test, and if it’s no worse than this, I can live with it for 10 weeks. Then I can rest up. I was gutted when I thought I was going to have to quit, then nearly depressed with a blue funk, so this is great. It’s sore, but it’s not what you’d call painful. I need to see how it feels tomorrow when I’ve slept […]

I’m having a bit of a crisis with my running. I did that 1.26 half marathon a few weeks ago and thought everything was totally on track. They say if you can run a 1.25 half then you are good for a sub 3 hour marathon. But… Garmin, (my satnav watch) were having tracking issues. The pace was all over the place, one extreme example it had me running at 17 m/m then 6m/m a few seconds later. It was during that patch I ran the 1.26. I thought the distance and time would be right, even if the live pace tracking was a joke. In a bit of a panic I bought a cheap (relative term) watch from another brand, but I didn’t really get on with it, then Garmin announced they’d fixed the issue so I sold it. I’ve ordered a shiny new Garmin. It’s supposed to be amazing at tracking. If you’re more concerned with pinpoint accuracy than weeks long battery life you can set it so it picks up all the different satellite systems (I thought there was only one, GPS, but it turns out that is a brand name we use generically like Hoover for vacuum cleaner) on several different wavelengths, or something. The bottom line is it is next generation for accuracy. There is a guy online who tests everything (DC Rainmaker). His reviews are a bit tedious because he covers *everything* in excruciating detail, but they are the last word on a product. He goes out with 3 or 4 or more devices all running at once and then compares the data, point by point, with lots of graphs. With this he just said it was boringly accurate. Under trees, between tall buildings, under bridges, it just tracked perfectly. This is what I need. I’m hoping it will give me exact running pace. I need to be perfect for pacing because I’m going to be on the limit. If I drop 30 seconds over a few miles I’m worried I just won’t have the legs to make it up. I’m still waiting for it to arrive. Because it’s a brand new release of the latest model sales have outstripped stock. They said 3-5 weeks. It’s been 2½ and I’m going frantic. Anyway, that was just an exciting digression. My point was I did that 1.26 half and thought all was well and I was on course for sub 3 marathon. That was 6 weeks ago. Twice since then I’ve tried to see if I could get the 1.25 time, and twice I’ve blown up and failed really quickly. One was only about 3 miles, the other about 6. Now I’m thinking that 1.26 was just a Garmin blip. My plan says to run 18 miles tomorrow, first 11 at 7.45 then pick up the pace, 7.00, 6.55, 6.50, 6.50, 6.45, 6.45. cool down 8.00. Instead I’m going to try and run it at sub 3, which is 6.50. I can try and pick […]