Back off it

This is from yesterday... internet down

Well after finishing up with tight calf’s last night, the evitable happened again tonight and as soon as I started running the calf’s were extremely tight. It’s a very weird feeling; they just feel like they’re going to pop at any minute. It’s intensely frustrating, and means I’m probably not going to hit my weekly mileage target, which I find very frustrating, particularly when I’m in peak running stage like I am at the moment.

Not quite sure what to do. I had this issue when I did my long run the other week. At around 16 miles, I started to get these sharp pains in the calf’s, so rested them up for a day, and then my two fairly light runs at the weekend, I had no issues at all. I know the reality is that I should probably rest up for a few days and just ice them, but it’s so annoying. I think I’m becoming too obsessed with it all. One slight injury and I think the world’s going to end!

I might just see how they go and then do a session on the tread mill. That seemed to work on Saturday after I had the issues last Thursday, given that it’s a softer surface to run on and no hills, which I think maybe the root cause of the issue. Even so, I know I shouldn’t be forcing it if I’m not right, but I just want to make sure I hit the mileage for this week, for me it’s really important. However at the moment I just don’t see myself being able to run a 22 miler outside on the concrete. Bring on the taper, when I can properly start to bring the mileage down and relax about it all. In the meantime I’m still frustrated as even though I did five miles tonight before I called it a day, I don’t feel like I’ve had a proper work out at all. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I hate being injured!

I sometimes wonder if I’m over training at all? I’m following (very roughly) a plan from a previous competitor, but I’m actually doing a hell of a lot more than he was at the stage I’m at. The reality is that I’m up around the 50-55 mile a week mark no problem with just over a year to go. It makes me wonder how far I’ve come in quite a short space of time. Just looking at my training when I started properly (October 2007), those first few weeks I was averaging around 15-20 miles a week, which to me seems like nothing. I’d go out on a school night and knock that off. So to come from that to where I am now in 5 months, makes me wonder if I’m overdoing it? The reality is though I actually start training around July 2007, but then got injured for the entire month of September, which effectively put me back to square one. So I just re-grouped, and decided to make October the start of 3 months ‘base training’, and then from January this year, ramped that up to around 40 miles a week, before pushing it to 50 in the final week of January, which I where I’ve pretty much stayed now, bar one lighter week two and a half weeks ago.

This in some respects makes me wonder what I’ll do post marathon, having put so much focus on it. Obviously I want to keep the fitness where it is, so will keep my mileage at around 50 I think over the next five months. However I’ll vary the training somewhat and start to include more off-road where possible (hard in a city). But do more interval training I think, haven’t really done enough of that in the last 3 months. Anyway, enough rambling… it’s only because I’m pissed off that I’m going on!