Well it didn’t start out as a great week since Sunday race unfortunately, during and after the race my legs felt fine and I did my usual stretches and then pretty much vegetated for the rest of the day. Monday however I woke to pains in predominantly my right gluteus and left calf although in both cases the other side would flair up if I climbed stairs or moved in anything but a walk. I limped around for the rest of the day obviously cancelling my planned run and stretched as often as I could.
Tuesday was pretty much the same although I felt it had eased off a little and had noted that the pains had got better as the day went on so after speaking to a couple of runners in the office I decided to go out for a very easy run to see how things went.
Tuesday 3 January
1PM – 4.01 – Recovery run – 38:54 – 9:42 – HR 138 (64% WHR)
The run went ok I managed to time it in between the down pours and my calf and gluteus felt fine while running on the flat however any slight accent or decent caused discomfort, on getting back to the office nothing had worsened and if anything my legs felt better until I had sat at my desk for a while and then everything must have seized up.
Wednesday again I woke up with a limp and discomfort in my calf and gluteus but after Tuesdays run I decided to go out again keeping it easy but increasing the distance slightly.
Wednesday 3 January
12PM – 6.14 – Recovery run – 57:53 – 9:26 – HR 143 (68% WHR)
Had a nice run into Derby city centre to pay some cheques into the bank and then back out via the long way to work. I got some funny looks standing in the queue in my running kit but I also think the queue moved quicker after I joined so maybe I will try that again, back to the run and having not suffered too badly with the wind and the extra distance everything seemed to be getting better the more I moved about.
Thursday I woke up with my gluteus feeling fine and limp gone although calf still noticeably niggly so kept things the same.
Thursday 4 January
12PM – 6.22 – Recovery run – 58:51 – 9:28 – HR 143 (68% WHR)
It was windy though and hard work especially while trying to keep the HR down and not push to hard into the headwind, sometimes I felt I was going nowhere and even the tailwind was horrible blowing me all over the track making me work twice as hard just to run in a straight line! But I enjoyed it all the same and had some giggles on the way with other people as I passed who were struggling similarly.
Friday was my normal rest day so will stuck to that, I woke up with no niggles at all so was feeling good that I would be able to race at NTRIX.
Saturday I’d planned to run a tempo and Sunday an easy 12 miles but with things as they were I scraped the temp and ran another recovery run but I realised a bike ride might be nice recovery too so swapped things around again and did my long run on the Saturday.
Saturday 7 January
10AM – 12 – Long run – 1:53:39 – 9:28 – HR 147 (70% WHR)
My calf wasn’t great until it seemed to get warmed up after about 4 miles but battling the headwind for 5 miles probably didn’t help and I was still trying to take things easy and keep my HR down which was a struggle too. Still it was great to have done my longest run since October!! Only 16 Weeks to get it up to 26.2 and be comfortable up there…
Sunday’s aim was to get out on the bike since I don’t seem to have managed it very often but I had to fit a run in for Marathon Talk’s Jantastic so a nice easy recovery before a quick ride on the bike.
Sunday 8 January
9AM – 5 – Recovery run – 44:40 – 8:56 – HR 147 (70% WHR)
Nothing really to say about this run it was
Sunday 8 January
11AM – 34.96 – Bike – 2:14:39 – 15:58 – HR 137 (64% WHR)
Next week I have mainly low mileage and not particularly high paced stuff leading up to the NTRIX race on Sunday, I’m pleased I have finished the week with my calf niggles gone and so hopefully can aim for my target time without any worry.
