Long Run Success

The last few weeks have seen me clock up my highest monthly mileage to date - 115 miles with 8 days still left in the month..

2 weeks ago saw me hit 21 miles. I had been struggling with some ankle pain and set out to do as much as I could do but would be happy to hit 10 miles. I did laps of a park just by my house so should the pain be too much I wouldn't be miles from home. At mile 7 I had some pain and decided to run through it, by 10 it had gone.

I then started working towards 18 miles as my new goal. Once I got close to 18 I decided 20 would be better and then as I'd already hit 20 went for 21. Although the last mile and a half were tough I was pleased to hit 21. This is my highest mileage for this training cycle and I felt good. It was such a sunny day and as I thought I wouldn't be out for long I ran on half a banana. I only had one packet of shot bloks and one bottle of Lucozade with me and no money on me so fueling wasn't ideal.

The following weekend was the Exbury Gardens 10k, which was changed to a 5 miler as the recent weather washed away part of the path. The plan was to run there which would have been 13 miles but a lot of the roads don't have pavements so not ideal. Then we were going to cycle but family commitments meant we had to be back by lunchtime so we drove. The race was really good, steady fast pace - may have set off a little too fast but really pleased overall. 8.15 average and finishing time of 41.03 and 7th in my age category. If it had been a 10k I think I would have a new pb. Later in the day I attempted to make up some mileage but only managed 3.5 slow miles so called it a day and had a smaller mileage week instead.

Today was the last long run before the taper begins. I wanted to hit 20 miles and had entered the Eastleigh 10k race. My boyfriend had the same plans so we ran 5 steady miles to the race starting point, averaging just under 10 min miles. We saw a few friends at the start and all started together.  I wanted to keep a 9.30 average for the 10k as this is my marathon goal pace and at the last minute my boyfriend and I decided to race together. As it turned out we averaged 9.15 min miles for most of the 10k which I'm very pleased about.

The race itself was pretty boring and although there was meant to be water at 6km they had ran out. This didn't bother us too much as we had Lucozade with us but other runners I think would struggle. It was a warm day for March and I imagine most runners were planning to grab some water at the water station so I was very unimpressed with the organisation.

After the 10k we went straight to the end of the road where we were meeting two friends from running club who were also out for a final long run. We did a 3-4 mile lap of the area and were hit with very unpredictable weather. We started with glorious sunshine, then had rain and finally hale stones which were so painful! After we said goodbye to our friends it was the final 5 miles home. Home was partly uphill and I did struggle for that mile but felt good when I got home.

It was really nice to break the run down and although the hale wasn't nice and the hill at mile 17 was brutal it was a really successful final long run. A warm bubble bath with lots of epsom salts, eggs on toast and an afternoon on the sofa followed :-)

Mid week I have been sticking with the early morning treadmill intervals in the gym and body pump in the evening. I have also started running the 3.5 miles to running club to have a slightly longer run on a Wednesday. I'm really pleased with how the final weeks of training have gone and am looking forward to tapering down for the next few weeks.

Fingers Crossed

Fingers crossed the ankle is on the mend (as I write this I am not convinced but I did have an injury free week so I'm taking that as a good sign).

I was a little disappointed about skipping the Bath Half mainly because I really wanted to do it. I knew I couldn't risk it with the ankle though. But from Instagram and Twitter I saw so many updates from those who took part in the Bath Half, Silverstone Half and Reading Half all on the same day, that I could help but feel like I missed out. Next year...

This week has been pretty good running wise though. No problems with the ankle but I am taking it steady. Tuesday I did 6 miles, which I thought I would love as I was back running again. In reality I was worried about going too far from home in case the ankle played up 3 miles away and I had to hobble home. So I ended up doing laps of the park opposite my house. I do return to Bodypump in the evening though after a week off.

Wednesday I was back with my weekly running group which was great. We did 3.8 steady miles. Again with no ankle issues.

Thursday was an am treadmill interval session in the gym. Was meant to be 6 miles but cut it to 5.5 to get in some ab work after. I then returned in the evening for a Body Pump class. Felt so good to be back with my normal routine. I'm trying really hard at the moment to incorporate abs, core work and stretching as much as possible. My legs feel really tight at the moment which is slightly worrying.

My ankle does feel sore today, I don't know if maybe I over did it yesterday or because I haven't iced it for a few days maybe? But I am going to ice it tonight and avoid Parkrun tomorrow - the temptation would be to push too hard. Instead I will do to 3 miles in the gym and then some abs and pray for a good long run on Sunday.

My new trainers arrived today, well they are the same as my old trainers, Nike LunarEclipse2+. They are actually the 2012 design - I think the current model is the LunarEclipse4. But I really like them and as they are the old design they were reduced :-) I have the LunarEclipse3 but the arch feels too high on my right foot and I think might have caused my ankle problems (I wore them for Bramley) so I have gone back to the 2's recently but they have over 400 miles of wear in them and should have been thrown away a long time ago. I might be clutching at straws but hopefully they will prevent any further ankle problems. Fingers crossed...

Don't Provoke The Injured Runner

This week saw my lowest mileage in a long time - all due to an ankle injury

My evenings revolved around resting and icing the ankle rather than clocking up the miles. Frustrating would be one way to describe it. 

But looks as though it has worked - it still feels tender so I'm trying not to push it but I did manage 2 miles in the gym on Saturday - it was far too nice to stay indoors so I then ran a further 4 miles outside in the sunshine. 

Sunday was meant to be the Bath Half Marathon but instead was 6 very happy treadmill miles. 

I'm not going to get too excited and rush back into high mileage but I am hoping this is the end of the injury problems.