This week was tough. I just had to get my head down and grind it out.
Both Achilles tendons have been troublesome and as the week progressed I was getting worried. It seems to me that my Achilles kicks off in certain Nike shoes, but this might be a coincidence. The newer 'Lunar' design of Nike shoes seem to cause me issues on longer runs I think, so I splashed out on a pair of New Balance for my longer runs, and slipped my orthotics back into them to combat the problem. I'll keep my fingers' crossed and persevere with easy stretching and friction massage along both Achilles.
As well as this my legs were absolutely trashed at the beginning of the week, so I gave myself a break with an easy five on the Monday. This seemed to do the trick for Tuesday as both runs were fine, but I was totally smashed on Wednesday evening for a run of just over 12 miles.
Everything hurt on that run. Legs, stomach. My legs were just dead and my quads were really sore. I just wanted to stop as soon as I set off. It was a horrible run. One of my least satisfying ever. It rained hard and my sopping shorts rubbed the skin off the insides of my thighs. Really uncomfortable.
This lead to another day of a single five mile effort, jogging. I also postponed my session as I just couldn't contemplate it in this state. I had planned a marathon session with longer efforts and short recovery but this wasn't going to happen whilst my legs felt so terrible.
Backing off worked and I felt up for it on Friday morning. Very early I ran six of my Bedford Park reps, which are just short of 2km, in absolutely lashing rain. I was happy with the session given the way I'd felt all week.
This lead me into the weekend where my main aim was to get a 24 miler done, and I did this without any problems. I was just pleased to get the week out of the way with the session and the long run ticked off. My mileage was a bit lower than I had planned, but this was due to the two easier days that I just had to take to fix my legs.
I managed to catch up with Adrian Marriott during the week. Adrian is probably the only runner to have run the Toronto Marathon for the England team who managed to properly nail the race, and the 2:18:57 he ran in 2007 is his personal best.
Adrian gave me some advice on the conditions (possibly humid) and also how the manage with the time change (five hours). He was also able to tell me more than I knew about the route and parts of the course to look out for.
Having had this chat and watched some videos of the race I'm very, very up for the challenge. Seven weeks to go now and I'm looking forward to the race hugely.
I've got to be extra careful with the Achilles. The dilemma seven weeks out is that there is no scope for any real downtime to get it sorted, I've just got to manage the problem as best as possible and remain upbeat.
I'm racing on 11 September, I was planning to race the Bristol Half but have changed to the flat, fast and more local 'Grunty Fen' Half near Cambridge.
M - 5 miles easy
T - AM 8.3 miles with last few miles quicker ~5.40 pace, PM 6.1 miles at 6.19 pace getting quicker
W - 12.5 miles at 6.26 pace but legs, stomach hurt. Felt like shit.
T - 5 miles easy jogging to get my legs back
F - AM [5.5 miles warming up & down] 6 x Bedford Park reps off 60s (1.17 miles) first effort steady then got quicker, felt decent. Raining hard. 6.07, 5.57, 6.00, 5.57, 5.58, 6.01, PM 6.4 miles easy
S - AM 8.9 steady but Achilles was sore, PM 6.1 miles steady, feeling decent
S - 24 miles at 6.36 pace in 2:38
95.5 miles