Manic week

Well I always knew this week was going to be a tricky one. I flew back to the UK last Tuesday, having had a good weekend of training and some decent back to back distances. However with jet lag and then spending 4 days up in Scotland at a wedding, training mileage for this last week has been one of the lowest since I started, although the rest will have probably done me some good - if I hadnt managed to strain my calf running on the streets of Glasgow!

So having landed Wednesday morning and being all over the place, the planned run for wednesday afternoon just didnt happen, I was whacked! Then Thursday I flew to Glasgow for the stag do, and managed 20 mins running in circles by the hotel we were staying at before I felt my calf pull. Somewhat surprisingly for me, I stopped right away and rested it. It was sore, so I rested it on Friday (not that I had the time to do any running anyway), and then on the Saturday morning before the wedding I got up at 6am to head out for a very gentle 9 miler around Loch Fyne which was truely beautiful. The calf was still sore for the first 40 mins or so, but after that it was OK, and I really enjoyed the run.

So after a terrible week on the training front, I now have this week, before the Hunter Valley marathon next weekend, and this following a flight back to Oz as well. Great! To be honest I'm not expecting the world from it - I dont think I'll be as quick as Canberra, even though I know I'm fitter than 3 months ago. I nearly decided to jack in doing the full marathon and just do the half, but I think that's more to do with self-preservation and ego than me thinking I'm not fit enough to run it. I am fit enough to run it, I'm just bothered that I'll go around more slowly than the Canberra marathon. So the attitude has to be that this is just another training run for me, and to that effect I'm not really going to taper for it. I need to keep the miles up. I wont be silly and run 50 miles this week, but I'll probably keep it up at 40, and then a few 4-5 milers next week ahead of the actual marathon as well.

My prepation has not been great to say the least. A nasty chest infection has really hampered my ability to get some bigger distances in over the last few weeks, but the fitness should easily be there to get around in under 4 hrs (I hope!). Plus the bigger short term goal is the Glasshouse 100km race in the middle of September, so really I should just use Hunter Valley as a training run for this little bad boy that will take it out of me! Following the Hunter Valley Marathon, i'm then down for the Fraser Island trail marathon which will be very cool. And then in between all of this I need to get a couple of 30+ milers under the belt before then in the National Park just down below Sydney. So now I have a bit more direction with the training as I was starting to feel a bit all over the place and the motivation was a struggle to be frank - but with an 18 month training regeime, it's understandable that you're going to get frustrated every now and again!