Recovery?

I played 5-a-side football on Saturday for 50 minutes and, rather surprisingly, there was no reaction from my knee during the game. I iced it afterwords and took some ibuprofen to be on the safe side, and there hasn't been any obvious reaction since. So, at least I now know I can play some pain-free football in order to keep my fitness up. Over the next day or so I'll try a couple of miles straight running to see if the knee holds up doing that.

Still injured

My knee was completely normal whilst walking, twisting, stretching etc. over the past week. But, alas, when I went for a run today to see how it would stand up to physical exercise, I only managed about half a mile or so before the pain came back - not as pronounced as last time, but still of an intensity where there was no point in trying to run through it so I quickly ended the comeback attempt. Thankfully there's been no after-effects during the day, so I'll rest up and ice and stretch for another week and try again next Sunday.

Recovery

Still resting my knee. The twinges are now much reduced to the point of being almost gone completely, and over the course of the next week or so I'll venture out for a short run to test it out. I'm no doctor but it seems to me I have a classic case of ITBS. I had a few twinges in the run up to the Edinburgh marathon, but no actual pain. I think it was probably still there in the background, and the many ups and downs of the Loch Ness marathon, especially on tired legs, aggravated it to the extent of causing injury.

Injury

After Sunday's run my knee seized up during the day for some reason. I thought the problem had gone away but it clearly hasn't as I had to abandon tonight's effort after a few hundred yards. Its an IT Band injury of some sort which has emerged from nowhere. Hugely frustrating as I don't know what's caused it and I was looking forward to getting back into training. There's no good time to be injured but I suppose immediately after a marathon is as good as time as any since there's plenty of time to get over it. So, enforced rest for a few days, some stretching of the band, and hopefully I can get back to it without too much delay....

6 miles

6 miles at 8:08 average place. Felt ok, but my knee seized up during the day. Not sure what caused it, but it seems to have disappeared now anyway. I'll call it a post-marathon niggle.

Aim for next week - 30 miles at 8:00-8:30 pace.

Getting back into it...

My legs felt sore on Monday and Tuesday, stiff on Wednesday, pretty good on Thursday and normal today. So I went out for a couple of miles tonight. I felt suprisingly good - very good in fact - and was only stopped from running far too quickly by a stitch.

My plan is to run 30 or so miles next week. 50 miles or so the following week. And hopefully 70 miles or so the following week for 4 consecutive weeks. This will all be steady running - 8-ish minutes per mile. It will take me to a new high weekly mileage, and lay a solid base for beginning the Jack Daniels 10k training programme. At least, that's the plan.

Photos

Some drowned rat photos from midway around the course....




And some photos from the comedy sprint at the end....

Marathon - 3:54:03

Yesterday was the Loch Ness Marathon in Inverness. I ran this marathon 3 years ago without properly understanding the training required and blew up quite spectacularly at 18 miles (at which point you reach two steep and long hills), plodding home a couple of seconds under 4:30. In Edinburgh this summer I crept below 4 hours, but the wheels came off at 20 miles in the stifling heat there too.

So for Loch Ness I was hoping for better things and ideally a time close to 3:45. Balanced against 10 months training solid training behind me and a couple of decent half and 10k PBs in the last month, was the fact that for a variety of reasons my weekend long-runs had suffered in the lead-up to the run. On the day I set off at 3:45-4:00-ish pace with a colleague from work who I ran the whole distance with. We ran a pretty solid race, keeping as steady a pace as was reasonable on a fairly undulating course. The scary hills from 18-20 miles came and went without too many problems, and I even felt confident enough to mention at 20 miles that the wheels were at least still half-on. The weather was difficult - very, very wet in large parts - but I would take that any day over the heat from the Edinburgh marathon. In the last mile my legs began to tighten quite noticeable, but only to the extent where I couldn't speed up for any great distance, rather than the feeling of just wanting to stop which I had experienced in my previous two marathons. Indeed, apart from a couple of calls of nature I didn't come close to needing to stop, which for me was a small personal victory. And so it ended with a 3:54 - not the 3:45 I had been hoping for, but sub-4 nonetheless.

Overall I think the time is a fair reflection on my training. I knew I was in better 10k/half shape than marathon shape, but I also knew I should be able to finish a marathon in (relatively) comfortable shape for the first time. A few minutes quicker would have been nice, but if I had run the first 20 miles at a slightly quicker pace I am quite sure I would have paid for it in the last few. And a PB is a PB, so I'm not complaining.

Quick reflections on the year. From a standing start at the beginning of 2006, I've managed all of my year's goals - sub 50 for the 10K (45:05 and 42:35), sub 1:45 for the half (1:47 and 1:39:02), and sub 4 for the marathon (3:57:58 and 3:54:03). I've enjoyed the training. I can judge paces in training with or without a watch. I'm beginning to notice differences in my performance - running sub-8 pace in training runs is becoming relatively easy compared previously. And I believe I've now got a decent base of steady running behind me now from which to build towards better times.

I'm probably going to steer away from the marathons for a year or so and concentrate on the 10k and half. Although more painful in some ways, I do prefer these distances and on the basis of my times so far I probably have more aptitude for them too. But the training regimes aren't hugely different from marathon training, and I will be aiming to build on my current 50/60 miles per week to 60/70 in the next cycle. So if I do concentrate on 'shorter' distances for a while, I expect it won't particularly be to my detriment for the next time I attempt the marathon.

I think the next target will be to run a half marathon and 10k in consecutive weeks in March of next year. I need to devise a training plan, but its looking like steady running until December, building to a new high weekly distance and also averaging a slightly quicker pace per mile than previously. From then it will be the Jack Daniels 10k training plan with two or three quality sessions per week. Next targets - sub 40 for the 10k and sub-1:30 for the half. Both ambitious, but both achievable I believe if I put the effort in and hit the appropriate balance between pushing myself and not over-training.

Marathon photos to follow if any are available.

Couple of great runs to mention. Mike with an 8 mile PB, and Andrew with a simply fantastic and thoroughly deserved 2:57:08.