An up and down this week. I have been getting far too excited about this marathon and it really all came down to earth with a bump by the end of the week!
My right thigh has been niggling away all week and looking back on my blog over the past 15 weeks it has been a recurring theme. It goes away, comes back, goes away again. You get the picture. I have been applying ice to it and now deep heat so hopefully it will choose to go away next Sunday!
Anyway on Tuesday night it was 12 x 2 mins hills. Which I was quite surprised by given that I was meant to be tapering and this is the toughest hill session I have done yet! I decided that instead of going for 2 mins hills, I would do 400m as that is roughly about the same and means I can see if I am improving. All I can say is what a session! I averaged between 1.48 and 1.52 with the slowest being the first one at 1.55 and the fastest being the last one at 1.44! I really felt comfertable going at a faster pace and with incline all the way!
Wednesday was an easy 5 miler then Thursday was a 3 mile hilly tempo run with 1 mile warm up/warm down. I did the 3 miles in 23.10! with 4 reasonable sized hills and I felt I could have gone on quite comfertably - so I was very happy with that. All three runs, although my thigh was a wee bit niggly, I felt really springy which was reassuring.
Then on Saturday I ran to the Park run in Pollock Park and back, an easy 4 miles altogether, volunteering in between. I felt really groggy and the tradition of having a bad Saturday run was back at it again :-).
Then today I was meant to go out for 12 miles at a steady/marathon pace. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see if I could run 8.30 pace and have energy left to burn next week. However I woke up and still felt a bit groggy but my confidence was high as I had a great week and I have done tempo runs for 10/11 miles faster than I intended to do today. The first mile however totally drained me. It was straight up Old Castle Road and by the top of it I was huffing and puffing, which is very unusual for me, as normally I'm fine with hills and with the hill work I did this week along with all the other hill work I thought I would be fine. But I clearly set out far too fast, way faster than 8.30 pace. So after running through Linn Park and nearly getting attacked by a dog. I cut my loses and ran back home. At this stage there was no point in totally exhausting myself further and potentially causing mor damage to a niggly thigh. Also I forgot the golden rule I have learnt over the years. The first mile is always the most difficult and if you do it right, you'll be able to up it later. whoops! lol
Anyway I'm still optimistic about next week, although slightly less excited which can only be a good thing as it means I'm calmer! I realise that I need to respect hills a lot more and although I know I am capable off running under 3.45. Loch ness is probably not the marathon to go for it. My original plan was to go for a 1.50-1.52 for the first half. Going by that logic the second half is tougher and could do 10 minute miles and I could get round in about 4 hours and if I was doing well, Sub 3.45 would be on. Now I think its better to do it the other way round. Do the first half 9-10 minute miles then the second half see how I feel. Although I think it would be wise to maintain the same pace until 20 miles then see how I feel. As beyond 20 is still unknown terroritory. But over all its going to be great to be surrounded by beautiful scenery and people who love to push themselves to the limit.
Finally thank you to everyone who has sponsered me and supported me throughout my training :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment