Week 7

Total Mileage : 60
Runs: 5

Ailments so far: 6

Calf strain
Achilles tendonitis
Hip Bursities
Blister
Blood blister
Gingerbread man

So, week 7. Weeks 4-6 didnt happen. Almost literally, so here we are at the end of the 7th week of training. In one piece (more or less).

This is in itself surprising but something i am very grateful for at this stage. Common sense and experience got me over my last injury blip. Common sense then dictates that one doesnt immediately fire in with what at this stage probably amounts to my second biggest weekly mileage ever. I really ought to have built more gradually to this volume but i dont think you can run a marathon without some element of risk and this was a gamble i was willing to take based on always being able to cool it off as the week progressed.

As it turned out i did cool it off a bit. Coming back from a break usually follows a patter. Early runs a awful. Slow, high heart rate, low fun. Then your body quickly reacts, gets better again and you have at least one run that is right on the button - quick, easy, light on the feet. This is invariably followed by another crash as the fatigue catches up on you. So it was this week. I had a few runs towards the end of the week that were trials. One indeed involved a classic 'bonk'. It was all i could do to finish and drag myself home before my energy levels completely collapsed and my spaghetti legs gave way.

All the same, i made it to friday only to discover that in my absence from this training programme it had gone and introduced a 7 mile general run on saturday rather than the 5 mile recovery effort i was expecting. Fatigue combined with football at Hampden being a general disruption alongside my ambitions for sunday caused me to bin that run and i am glad i did. I think it did me good to get a little extra rest.

Those sunday ambitions were around my planned long run for the week. 21 miles scheduled. In the end i did 'only' 20. The P&D schedule is relatively light in genuinely long runs so i dont like to miss them when they come up in my diary and even though it was a challenge given my current fitness i was determined to do this one.

In the end it proved to be a bit of a confidence builder. Despite a slightly elevated heart rate it felt easier than i could reasonably have hoped. I have tried to explain to Lucy just how much fun it is to do a run that is almost entirely uphill for the first ten miles and then downhill on the way back. She doesnt get it. I do though and i got this one in while avoiding some forecast rough weather. The first half was inevitably into a headwind which mysteriously disappeared at the turn and there was a few squally showers along the way but nothing that challenged my vaselined covered extremities too much.

Noticably fewer runners out now that GSR  is out of the way. We are definitely now heading in to shorter days and dark and grimmer running.