Good start but a worrying end.

Week 3 down. 13 weeks to go.

Good start but a worrying end.

Monday has now turned into my track day and this week was no different. I have increased the amount of 800 meter runs I do up to seven and reduced my recovery time in between. This week after each 800 I would run 500 meters in around 2 minutes 30 seconds. My 800 meters are keeping steady at 3 minutes 10 seconds. Overall it was a good session. One thing about this training is that I do feel very tired the next morning.

Tuesday I had 6.5 miles planned but due to work commitments I couldn’t get out. Don’t like missing sessions but sometimes it happens.

Wednesday was a rest due to a 5 mile race in Churchtown South the following night.

Thursday was race night. 5 mile road race and I had been looking forward to this. I have done this race for the last 2 years and always find it challenging. It’s a double loop run and I always find this hard. I think it’s because you know what’s ahead the second time. Also there are hills on this course around the 2 mile mark and 4.5 mile mark so it takes the wind out of you if you have gone out too fast. Anyway I was happy with this race but I have no mile splits (my watch played up on me). My total time was 32:36. Avg pace per mile was 6.31. Last year’s time was 33:10 so a little improvement. The big plus with this race was that I finished feeling well and strong.

This weekend is a little different than normal as I went to U2 on Friday and Saturday night so Friday morning I decided to get a semi long run done. 9.4 miles at 7:33 per mile pace but looking back I’m not sure if this was the right thing to do so soon after the race the night before.

Saturday morning my plan was to run around 12 miles as I was planning a rest day on Sunday. After about 4.5 miles my calf muscle started to hurt me. I usually don’t have problems with my calves but this felt like trouble. Luckily I was close to home and finished up the run at 5.4 miles. Within an hour I was limping and finding it difficult to walk. I have no idea what happened to be honest. I am thinking that maybe I didn’t give my legs time to recover after Thursday’s race. It now feels a bit like a muscle recovering after a cramp but it didn’t cramp. Today it’s a little better and the limp is gone. Still a bit of discomfort in the calf but nothing like yesterday. I will wait till the morning to see if I will do tomorrow’s track session.

Mileage in total this week was 29 miles. A poor week’s mileage and a bad development in relation to the calf muscle.
The next few days will be really important to see how the leg will hold up to training. I’m keeping my fingers crossed at this point.