Week eight of training is over, which means that there are now less than ten weeks to go until the marathon. That feels terrifyingly soon and I feel in no way like I can run a sub 3:45 there. It doesn’t help that I’m particularly run down right now and the thought of moving off the sofa is exhausting, and I’m definitely thinking I might need to make some tweaks to next week’s training so that I recover. This week wasn’t too bad overall though.
Monday – rest
As usual, Monday was my rest day. I did do a fair bit of walking as I met my other half for food in the evening so we ended up walking around Leeds a bit, as the place we were originally going to go was full.
Tuesday – 7-8 mile club run
Whilst I had been planning to go to yoga at lunch, I decided that it was a bad idea, as I was trying to recover from a cold and figured that being sniffly in a class whilst trying to do downward dog probably wasn’t ideal. I did do a short Yoga with Adriene session at home after work though – I didn’t mind sniffling so much on my own. I then headed out on the club run, which was a hill session. Unfortunately it was so cold that quite a lot of the roads and pavements were already slippy, so it wasn’t the most productive hill session for me as I was a bit cautious. I grew more confident as the run went on and did manage to get some good efforts in. It wasn’t especially fast overall, but I managed to stay upright so that’s a win. Pace was 9:24/mile on average, so not too bad considering there was a lot of recovery to make up for the hill efforts.
Wednesday – 7m run commute
My plan for Wednesday was to run commute as usual, however I was a bit worried that it would be too slippy. I decided I was going to try anyway, and that if I was sliding all over, I’d get the train in and run at lunchtime. Luckily it wasn’t that bad at all, and the pavements and roads were in much better condition than the evening before so I had a successful easy run in to work. I had a decent walk at lunch as well. I stopped behind after work to play some board games, but left quite early as I was shattered – a late night on Tuesday after the club run, combined with an early start for my run commute are enough to leave me feeling in need of rest. I could run in a bit later, but I prefer going early before there’s too much traffic. Pace was 9:15/mile, my legs felt pretty good in terms of not being tired, however the pain in my right foot that I had last spring has cropped up again I’ve been trying to massage the side of my right calf, it feels like the same thing as last year which was my calf pressing on my peroneal nerve, so I’m hoping some physio will sort it out.
On top of that, the inside of my right calf is tender, which I think might be due to the reduced frequency of the calf exercises I was recently given. I was doing them four times a day, then on my follow-up call with the physio I was told to do them a couple of times a week since the pain was resolved. I think I’m going to go back to doing them multiple times a day again.
Thursday – winter training, 3×1.25m efforts
Another reason I wanted to get home on Wednesday and have a relatively early night is that I had a strength and conditioning session at 6am on Thursday, postponed from the Friday before when I was ill. It was a good session, and despite the early start I really enjoyed it and felt okay afterwards.
I headed out to the winter training session after work, despite really not wanting to (the tiredness had hit by then). It was hard work, and breathing in cold air maybe wasn’t the best, but I was glad I’d gone. I didn’t quite hit the paces I’d managed the previous time I did the session which was a little disappointing, but the early start, morning session and my cold (which was still lingering) probably all affected that. I’m not sure what the pace was for my efforts, but definitely slower than I’d hoped. Never mind, onwards. My foot/calf pain didn’t stop me running, but it’s still there.
Friday – cross training
After being tired the night before, I decided to book onto a yoga class at lunchtime rather than the early morning one so that I could have some extra sleep (definitely a good decision). It was a really good class, and although I like the early class as well, lunchtime is a more efficient use of my time. I went to see some friends in the evening which was lovely, but by the time I got home I was feeling pretty ropey. I think the efforts session the night before may not have helped with my recovery.
Saturday – 1m warm up, 3m tempo, 1m cool down
Originally I had planned to go to York parkrun with a friend, however she couldn’t make it. I was due to drive up to Edinburgh on Saturday (via my parents’ in Berwick) so I’d figured that I’d do a parkrun somewhere en route instead. As the week went on, I kept changing my mind and choosing a parkrun closer and closer to home so I could sleep longer – in the end, I decided to forgo running altogether and just sleep. It was the best decision, as I just felt run down. Just a cold, nothing too terrible, but enough that I wanted to sleep and not run. I even tried to view my many hours in the car as useful rest time.
Once I got to Edinburgh and arrived at my uncle’s, I requested that we went out for a bit of fresh air and a little walk since I’d mostly sat down all day, so I did get a bit of exercise and I started to feel a bit better. It’s a beautiful city to walk around, and we wandered around Holyrood grounds for a good while, then stopped for a beer at a bar near my uncle’s flat.
We went out for dinner afterwards, where I ate lots of food (including a really good crumble), fuelling for my Sunday run!
Sunday – 16m long run
Part of the reason I had been keen to try to rest and get better on Saturday is that I was due to run 16 miles on Sunday, and as I haven’t done many (any?) long runs recently I really wanted to make sure I did my long run. Just the day before, I had googled to see whether there were any Sunday group runs in the area, and I had come across the Edinburgh Running Network. Their website said that they were happy for people visiting for the weekend to join them for their Sunday morning runs, so I contacted them and asked about the pace (I didn’t want to run with people who were too fast and either push myself too hard or get left behind and get lost!). The pace was going to be the faster end of my long run pace, but I decided it was worth a try, and so on Sunday morning I met up with a group of about 25-30 runners in central Edinburgh. They were all very welcoming, and after a mile or so we split off into different directions depending on the mileage (I had opted to join the 12 mile group, there were other groups doing six and eight miles). I chatted to various people as we ran and really enjoyed myself, and it was nice not having to think about the route or worry about where I was! Along the coast we ran into a strong headwind, which felt like a battering ram, so that bit was less pleasant, but the majority of the run was great. Although it was a bit faster than I would have ideally run for my long run, I was definitely happy that I’d chosen to run with the group – it’s so much nicer having company, and I didn’t have to worry about finding my way around.
By the time I got back to my uncle’s flat I had done just under 14 miles, so I ran around the Meadows for a bit to make it up to 16. The last couple of miles I definitely felt like I was running out of energy (I had eaten before the run but not during) but not too bad, and whilst I was a little tired after, a brunch of bacon, eggs and toast sorted me out! Overall pace was 8:55/mile.
In the afternoon my uncle and I went to the National Museum of Scotland, which we wandered around for a bit, then we headed out for a long walk – to the botanical gardens, then down to the water of Leith, which we followed the whole way in to Slateford. We stopped at the visitor centre in Slateford for a cup of tea, then carried on walking along the canal back home. I think we walked about ten miles in total – by the time we got back to his flat, I’d done over 50,000 steps! We went out to Zizzi for dinner, and I managed to eat quite a lot of food (probably needed after all of that exercise) and had a lovely glass of wine. I was actually quite full though and didn’t manage to eat all of my dessert!
That was week eight. Time is flying by. I’m booked in for some physio this week, so hopefully that will sort out my foot/calf pain. In the meantime, I’m going to get back to eating healthily after a more indulgent weekend, and I’m really going to focus on getting plenty of sleep this week. I don’t have evening plans other than running, so I’m going to be getting to bed as early as I can!
jenniferlucie runs 