Sunday, October 4, 2009

Back on Track

It’s been a rough week with injury worries coming at me, but finally it looks like nothing will stand in the way between me and the marathon start line.

As predicted my niggles became a little bit worse and on Thursday I ran for 10 miles but noticed that I was subconsciously trying to protect myself, skipping here and there, occasionally not wanting to put weight onto my right foot. I slowed right down and jogged home not wanting to risk anything – obviously my body was trying to tell me something. Once home I realised just how tight my right ITB was and that my right foot was aching a little bit as well. I immediately got the t-roller out and got to work, took a hot shower and self-massaged the ITB muscle, bringing myself to the point of tears.

On Friday I intended to put in an easy 45 minutes to see how it was, but less than five minutes from the front door I decided to turn around as my foot wasn’t coping well and I could feel it stressing. If there’s one thing you don’t need its putting weight on a damaged foot for 26.2 miles! I got in and changed into my swimming kit and for the first time used the apartment pool. I put in two sets of 10 minutes with a stop to use the t-roller and do some self-massage whilst standing in the warm water of the hot tub. Afterwards I just sat and relaxed in the whirlpool, turned on the jets and let my muscles relax, it was pretty heavenly.

Apartment pool and whirlpool/hot tub

Continuing the theme of cross training I used the apartment gym on Saturday evening to do some elliptical cross-training (ski machine) and the treadmill. I warmed up with 30 mins on the elliptical before switching to 15 mins running, which felt ok but not great, before going back to the elliptical for a final 15 minutes. I jumped in the hot tub afterwards for some more massage to ease everything off. So heading out on today’s proposed 1hr40min run with Jay I was a little bit apprehensive as to how my legs and foot would cope. At first the foot didn’t take to the impact so well, but with a little perseverance it eased off and for the most part the run was pain free. The ITB felt much better and didn’t give any trouble and a slight niggle in the left quad didn’t get any worse. Result.

It was great to get out and run with Jay, a guy I really respect for his dedication to the cause as he looks to continue his improvements and make provincial and national teams. We ticked over nicely at 6:30 pace on the way out to UBC and brought it back a little quicker. Despite the fact I’ve been running at a faster pace at around the ten mile mark the effort gradually started to catch up with me and I had to ease off, which subsequently gave me a stitch. Typical! I guess the previous night’s hour of aerobic work was still prevalent and the hard tempo running had taken its toll as well.

I’ve made the decision to start my taper from here on in. My body felt pretty bad today and if I get to halfway in the marathon feeling as tired as I did earlier I’m going to find myself in trouble. I’m going to need to be completely fresh for the race so it’s time to consolidate the limited training, just keep ticking over, get in the carbohydrate and stay relaxed. I’m intending to go into the race looking to run fast... just how fast? You’re going to have to find out in a future blog.

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