I Drink, therefore I Run

I feel like I have turned a corner now with this injury, and whilst it is not yet over, my sense is that I have it at least under control, so it will not disrupt the BIG DAY (no, not the royal wedding, the London marathon!). 5 runs this week, 33 miles, and the Fleet half marathon! Now that is pretty good by my reckoning. I have been managing the leg somewhat, keeping it in check, and just running within my top abilities - which is, thankfully, still more than is needed speed-wise for the marathon. It was a delight this week to have company on the way to the Fleet half. Andy, a colleague from B&Q, (who is also tackling London, for the first time) foolishly consented to put up with my driving and my drivelling for the journey. The weather was just right, not breezy, cool but not cold. A big field this year, 2300+ I hear, and a new course, to take account of bunching at the start. Once again the organisers put on a grand show. I paced myself steadily round to a 1hr30min38secs finish...

I will limit the whinging about my injury to this...I spent the week managing the problem, quite deliberately, to ensure I toe the line on 17th April. So, still 22.32 miles and four runs, 3 of them deliberately steady. I also undertook some sports massage - truly painful, the most painful I have ever experienced, however it is what is needed. Anyway, enough already of my moaning. Monday and Tuesday were the remaining days with our Twinners, and as I said last week, I feel like I have been on holiday in my own town. Our guests were more than guests, they were family, and we delighted in how lovely Romsey and Stockbridge are. And of course this was an excellent reason to stay off running for a bit...aaah, I did say I would not talk about that! As compensation for this I have been ensuring that the quality of the wines tasting has been high! Two of these wines were drunk whilst the Italian Twinners were here, the other two in what has been a high-quality wine week. I recapped on...

Well, the title pretty much gives the game away here. After the twinge on Sunday, I took it easy in circuits on the Monday night, and all seemed well. I put in a good performance on the track on Tuesday, 12 x 400, even deliberately holding just a bit back in reserve - I said to myself (quite presciently) that I had all the fitness I needed, now I just wanted to preserve it for 7 weeks and stay injury free. Tcha! Took Wednesday off, and a gentle session on the gym on Thursday. I'm over this, I thought. Oh how wrong I was, as on Friday, during a tempo phase, the twinge returned. I took the difficult decision to scrub my Saturday long run and rest up. Never an easy call, it is a decision you roll into over several hours, dropping from 22 miles, to well, maybe 16, to perhaps just 10, to..well, you get the point. The arguments with yourself. So, there it was, 2 runs, 14.8 miles, in what should have been a busy week. The upside, however, was that there was more time to prepar...