London Marathon Training - 3 weeks to go!
Key -Blue - Both of us Orange - JohnPurple - Kelly
We've both had a really positive week of training and both really enjoyed running and training together again. Here's a pic of us doing our Jelly (John and Kelly) squats!
Monday 26th March 2018
Easter Holidays Woohoo! We were however, still up at 6am to go to PT as normal. I didn't want to put too much stress on my foot so I decided to drive, rather than run as normal, to PT.
Our session with Jules today looked like this:
Squat and press with 2x 5kg dumbells, followed by squat thrusts then mountain climbers. 20 secs, 40 secs, 60 secs.
Squat and press with 10kg plates, followed by Squat jumps then ski hold 20 secs, 40 secs, 60 secs.
Press ups, followed by plank foot jumps then plank hold. 20 secs, 40 secs, 60 secs.
Crunches, followed by leg raises then sit ups reaching to feet. 20 secs, 40 secs, 60 secs.
Single leg down and ups. X3.... X5.....x8......Each side.
Medicine ball alternating hand press ups x10
balance throws 3kg, 5kg , 8kg X10 each way followed by elbow to knee crunches in between alt throws . X3
Balance ball throws to finish.
A really good session - enjoyable and challenging.
At lunchtime, I went to a yoga class which helped me stretch out after this morning's efforts.
I ran to and from PT - 5Mi @ 8:33MM Pace
After 3 weeks without PT - coming back was a real shock to the system. In hindsight, a Sunday night pub crawl wasn't ideal prep and it seems like my arms and upper body had assumed that I'd retired from any kinda strength work all together! A really tough session for me but it was good to get started again with staying strong and cross training.
Tuesday 27th March 2018
I had more of a lie in today before heading to the gym ready to try a cross trainer workout. A couple of people have pointed me in the direction of a vlog by Eilish McColgan in which she gives suggestions for workouts to do on a crosstrainer that are pretty much as good as running. Today, I did:
A 5 min warm up followed by 20 x 1 min efforts. I aimed to get all of my efforts at or above 100rpm and I definitely felt like I was working hard. I managed 7 miles in 46 mins.
In the evening, I did another yoga class. It was slightly harder today after pushing hard in the gym but I still feel like I'm making good progress with my flexibility and strength.
A GA run with the Maestro for me - becoming a weekly workout! 11Miles at 7:20MM pace and feeling fresh considering yesterdays PT session.. I did 5K @ MP as well - Plan on doing this most workouts now over the net couple of weeks before properly tapering down before the marathon.
Wednesday 28th March 2018
After a 3 days of not running, my foot felt amazing. No pain at all when I walked and only a slight pain when I pressed hard, with my finger, into my heel. I am still rolling and icing every day and I've added in a new routine which is performing a calf stretch every time I brush my teeth (one calf while I brush one side of my teeth and the other calf during the other side!). I am continuing to wear foot pads when I am not wearing supportive shoes. I have also taken on board Jenny's (my physio) recommendation to go back to wearing my compression socks while running.
I did another yoga class again today - I think I might be addicted!
In the evening, I went (for the first time in ages) to my running club! It was really great to be back running with John and all our friends at Great Western Runners. It was lovely to see everyone and catch up with how their training has been going. I wanted to try running 8 miles today - which would be my longest run for 3 weeks.
I was overjoyed to be back running with my friends. The 8 miles felt really good. I even managed to get one mile at sub 7mm pace which felt brilliant. My legs feel incredibly fresh and bouncy.
When I got back to the club and took off my shoes however, I could feel that pain in my heel come back. It hurt to walk again and I hobbled around the changing room and had a shower. We had decided to stay at the club for dinner and a couple of drinks which was great but meant that I didn't have access to my iced water bottle or golf ball...I had to improvise - I got some ice from the bar and managed to ice my foot which helped. But, once again, I was wondering if I'd put myself back again?
DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness- PT has caught up with me... 12Miles @ 7:46MM pace and it felt hard... Legs felt slow and heavy. I was tired from PT. I had planned 14 miles but decided it was sensible to cut the workout short.
Thursday 29th March 2018
Another yoga class today and I could definitely feel the pain in my foot. In the afternoon I went to see Jenny my physio to see what she thought. She could feel that it was still not 100% but urged me not to worry that some of the pain had returned. She reminded me that the pain wasn't as bad as before and that, if I am going to run on it, I had to expect some pain afterwards. She gave it a really thorough massage which instantly made it feel better. Jenny asked me when I was planning to run again and I explained that I had a 'long run' planned in with John and Marcus for the next day. She advised me not to run if my foot hurt when I first got out of bed tomorrow morning.
Still feeling tired... I reduced my miles again and I ran 3miles instead of 5 - 8:30MM pace around the harbourside. Big workout planned for Friday so I was hoping the reduced miles today and Wednesday would be reward with a fresher feeling body tomorrow.
Friday 30th March 2018
I woke up with a slight trepidation...not wanting to put my foot down in case it hurt...thankfully, when I touched down, there was no pain at all. The combination of Yoga and Physio had done the trick and my foot hardly hurt at all.
I was delighted because I had really been looking forward to running 'long' with John and Marcus again. The plan was for me to do the first 10 miles and then head home leaving them to continue to at least 20 miles.
We set off at a good sub 8 min mile pace which felt really comfortable. I was eager to keep up with the boys (in other long runs before I was injured I often struggled to keep up and was left trailing). Gradually, we increased the pace to around 7mm. Still I found the pace relatively easy. Grinning from ear to ear, I was running in step with the boys and feeling pretty smug!
We turned around the 5 mile mark and the boys decided to try 3 marathon pace miles. I'm at a point now where I'm not sure what my marathon pace should be but I thought I'd try some at sub 3 hour pace to see how it felt. The first mile I did in 6:40 mm pace which felt really good. Mile 2 was 6:47 I was working a bit harder now. Mile 3 was 6:47 again. By this point my hamstrings were feeling a bit tight -probably from the faster miles on Wednesday. I finished off with two miles to cool down. 10 miles done at an average pace of 7:17mm.
Long run - 22Miles @ 7:25MM pace - Boom! This will be the longest run now before the London Marathon in 3 weeks time. When we set out, I was still feeling a tad fatigued still from Monday's PT session but I was keen to get this workout banked/out the way. The Maestro and I managed 6 miles at Marathon pace - <6:40MM - it was hard but not uncomfortable. It's been miserable conditions for running the past few months and today wasn't an exception - we seemed to be running constantly into the cold easterly breeze. This being the case I feel we deserve some good karma come race day. 'T was lush to be running with the GFRG and very exciting to see her running so strong and quick - she's coming back from injury much stronger and faster than I anticipated... This is great to see and great for me as it means my runs are a lot less lonely but I do hope she doesn't revert back to bad habits - over training, junk miles, not enough Xtraining... etc
Saturday 31st March 2018
Another yoga class for me today. I was feeling yesterday's run; my legs were a lot tighter and I wasn't able to bend and stretch as much as in recent days but I guess that's to be expected. Despite this, my foot felt amazing. It didn't hurt at all! I really wasn't expecting that - especially with how it felt after Wednesday's run.
We spend the rest of the day eating copious amounts of chocolate - oops! However, I did burn 300 calories on my Aunty's 'twist and spin' trainer!
5Miles at 8:30MM pace - not feeling too bad today considering yesterdays workout - I think all of the PT fatigue has finally gone!
Sunday 1st April 2018
We had my sister and her boyfriend staying this weekend so I had some company for yoga today.
After yoga, I did a little 3 mile run. It was a beautiful sunny day, my foot didn't hurt at all. It felt incredible to run pain free!
8Miles @ 7:15MM pace. After an unusual lie in and finding an equally unusual hour of good weather - I headed out to Ashton Court and enjoyed a few miles of off road, hilly trail running - LUSH - running free and easy, no aches or niggles I even managed a Sub6MM without really meaning to.
So 20.1 miles done for the week. It still feels really low to me and part of me is still desperate to run more but I am starting to understand and feel the benefits of resting more and making every run count. I am planning to continue next week in a similar way - still doing lots of yoga and cross training but upping the miles a bit. I feel like my foot is really close to being completely better so I'm feeling more and more positive every day that the London Marathon could still be a success for me!
A week of good running for both us. Glad to have had a positive last long run and I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks of starting to wind down and some sessions at marathon pace. KD is itching to revert back to trying to be top of the miles leaderboards and quickly forgetting how strong her running has been the last 2 weeks on reduced miles and focused workouts... Please can readers/KD fans reassure her that running 26.2miles isn't the problem - after the last 3 weeks she's endured - it's getting to the start line.
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