Tuesday 3 April 2012

Only 20 days to go and a lovely trip to York


Right, not long to go until the big day now!

Sorry for the tardiness for this blog, in-between training I have had a long weekend to York for a wedding as well as a few other social functions, which has not left me with much time to sit down and write something worth reading,

So, last time out I had just completed my longest run to date, going through a number of Monopoly board locations en route. The distance was 27km, and was to be topped last Tuesday afternoon when I had a half day at work with the express intention of going out for a 33km run, marking my “longest run” of the whole schedule.

However, things did not start out that well when I was feeling a touch heavy legged right from the get-go, and it was more of a “plod” than a “run”.  Still I marched onwards and was doing ok up until the 18/19km area. Around then I could feel my right calf tighten up as I was progressing along the Holloway Road, with the uphill section near the top end of it proving to be especially painful. 

I though I might be able to run it off but to no avail. At around 22km I stopped and though about if I could manage another 11km, or if I was likely to do myself some proper damage. Now, a few years ago I managed to tear my right calf when I was living in NZ, and had to go through months to physio to get back on track. I don’t have time for months of physio. Not even weeks. So, in the end I limped home, doing 24km in just under 2 and a half hours, with my pace impacted by the limp home.

After that I had to give myself a couple of days off to make sure I didn’t aggravate the injury. I would far rather get round the marathon in a slow time than not get round at all, and so on Friday morning I was up bright and early for a run around the outskirts of York, where I was spending the weekend to attend a wedding on Saturday.

I managed to get round 10km with only a bit of tightness in my calf, which pleased me a lot as I was really worried I had totally banjaxed it. In fact I even got round in a decent time and followed this up with a quick 8km on Saturday morning before the wedding.

I had Sunday off to explore more of York and its fine collection of pubs, before catching the train back to London on Monday morning. After getting home around 2ish I though I might take the opportunity of an afternoon off for a quick half marathon.

Now, the intention was actually to go for a nice slow run in the sunshine, testing out a couple of energy gels to see how my body would react, as sometime they can make me feel a bit sick.

However, this time out not only did I feel fine, I managed to record my second fastest half marathon time and the fastest I have down outside of a proper race, so the gels must have done some good. One side effect though is that you can crash a bit afterwards, which I did, falling asleep in the bath when I got home.

So I am now down to just 20 days to go, and I don’t really have enough time to fit in a 30km run as well as start to taper properly, so I am just going to have to go with what I have got and make the best of it. For now on I have one more half marathon to do and then the size of the runs gets shorter and shorter, although the frequency will stay the same.

I am now really close to hitting my fund raising target but am running out of time, so please, if you keep forgetting to sponsor me, then forget no more and do it NOW! My page is at: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/runningfatblokeand it is super easy to sponsor me, so please do! I am trying to raise £1,600 for the Willow Foundation, which provides special days for seriously ill young adults.

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