The final run-in

So with the nose-dive that training has taken in the last 6 weeks, I'm now wondering what the final 2 months of training will hold for me. The plan was to have a big February with taper starting first week of March, but as you have to sometimes, plans change. I went for an 8km walk on Saturday, quite a bit on soft sand and that was a hard slog, however the leg felt stronger for it on Sunday. So here I am left wondering. It's obvious that I can just about train through this, albeit as a reduced speed and distance - but that isn't going to help matters and I'll go into the MDS injured. Or, I can still rest (whilst swimming and walking), and hope that come Feb 1st, I can pick things up again and run.

I'm tempted with the latter. I was encouraged by the Narrabeen Ultra, it went better than expected and I felt stronger as the race went on, which is something that tends to happen for me I've noticed in the relatively short time that I've been doing ultra marathons. It's clear that I've not lost the endurance I've built up. I clocked up a grand total of 90kms in December, but still managed to bash out 91kms in one go at Narrabeen. The fitness will be gone slightly I know, but as long as I can maintain the endurance then that's the most important thing for the MDS. So with that I think training is going to be structured around some long runs at the weekend, a mid-week run, with plenty of swimming. That should keep me at around 70kms a week if I can, which is about the best I can hope for right now. The important thing is to 'manage' the injury and not push too hard. I'm tempted to go out tonight for some hill reps - those I can do, and they help towards fitness too if I do them hard enough. They get the heart rate pumping, so I'll include a couple of those sessions as well. It's not the same as tempo, but it will be good hard work for me.

It's disappointing to have trained so hard for 15 months, and then for the final 3 months to be a bit of a mess. But I should be thankful. I've got in a good 3,500kms since October 2007, and that's the ground work and basis for the MDS - I just need to maintain what I can as best I can over the next 6-8 weeks without doing any further damage. Then I'll just flog myself big time on the MDS with a bucket load of Voltarin to manage the pain :)