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.

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.

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’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.

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.