14 of 16: Get Healthy

Melbourne Marathon 2015 - Week 14 of 16

I am into my taper now and my focus for this week is stunningly simple - get healthy! On Monday morning it was off to the physio, my very good friend Rob O'Donnell at Southern Suburbs Physio Centre who suspects I may have a case of hamstring tendinopathy. He is optimistic and so am I. He has me doing a series of back arches, a bridge and self massage (to 'annoy the tendon') and we'll see later this week how I am going.

Importantly, there is no running until Thursday when I am permitted only to do an easy effort. So this means the Tuesday interval session is out as is Nike Run Club, which will be the first Wednesday I have missed since I began last April. I'm actually pretty sad about that but it is the right thing to do. If I am lucky then I may be back running ok by the weekend. At least that's my plan!

Thursday 1 October

I have rarely been as nervous ahead of a run as I was today. After doing my exercises and NO RUNNING for three days I was desperately keen to see if the rest and treatment was working. No matter f this was having a positive effect or not I knew I'd be apprehensive. I was under strict instructions to run only at an easy pace, so for me I decided that meant do my usual 10k route at just over 5m/k.

My first steps out of the office building were tentative. I wanted to run but I didn't want to run. Maybe knowing would be worse than not knowing .... I took it very easy and it felt ok. I could still feel the twinge, though it was nothing like on the weekend. Of course, after being home yesterday and spending a part of the morning weeding and cleaning (ie, doing lots of squats) I was actually a little sore from that and so found it hard to work out what was causing the sensations.

But it was positive. Certainly an improvement. A couple of times I resisted the temptation to stride out just to see if I could. I'll leave that for the weekend. I remain optimistic that magician-Rob will sort me out. He's good like that. Tomorrow morning - a public holiday here in Melbourne - he will see me again. More good stuff.

I'm looking forward to the weekend run and hopefully being able to stride out again! (Now, if I could just rid myself of this chest infection I've picked up from my family!!!)

Sunday 4 October

Only two runs this week and I had very high hopes for this one. After some rest, exercises, good treatment and promising signs on Thursday I was optimistic that I might be able to run at or very close to my target pace of 4.30 for this half marathon effort today.

It was the start of daylight savings and with a good night's sleep I got out at just after 7am while it was not too warm and the wind was calm!

As has been the case with this injury, I tend to know fairly quickly what kind of run it will be. Unfortunately today the sensations were not good at all. Oddly enough, at first the pain was around on the upper front of my left thigh - not at the back in the hamstring. Go figure! A few times in the first kilometre my leg almost buckled underneath me and I crawled a 5.23 to being with. I kept going, hoping that it work work itself out. After all, last Thursday I had run and felt much better than this.

I gradually tried to pick up the pace on the slow incline up East Boundary Road, covering the next three k's in 4.57, 4.50 and 4.38. My form felt ragged and it was not easy but I wanted to get down to something like my target pace. But it quickly faded and I slowed to near 5 m/k pace then to 5.10's and by 14k I was shot.

It was as if my right hamstring was out in sympathy with the left. I had absolutely no drive through there and it became a struggle just to put one foot in front of the other. The journey up South Rd was horrific, no quicker than my super long and hot 37k run a few weeks back if I allow for time at lights.

This is so upsetting. I wish that the race had been two weeks ago when I was in great form and feeling wonderful. Now I'm just a bit of a physical wreck and, to be honest, am not quite sure how to get right. My goals have rapidly slipped away and I'm staring at just my final goal - finish - to motivate me now!


Training Program:
Full session details for my whole training plan here.

Strava links for the week:
Thursday - Tentative Steps 10.4k @5.08; easy run
Sunday - Going Backwards 21.2k @5.22; very sad run

Summary:
Week 14 of 16 (this week): 2 runs, 31.6 km, 2:47 hrs
Week 13 of 16: 5 runs, 58.9 km, 4:55 hrs
Week 12 of 16: 5 runs, 65.1 km, 5:19 hrs
Week 11 of 16: 6 runs, 76.1 km, 6:58 hrs
Week 10 of 16: 4 runs, 48.8 km, 3:57 hrs
Week 9 of 16: 5 runs, 65.2 km, 5:30 hrs
Week 8 of 16: 4 runs, 59.0 km, 4:57 hrs
Week 7 of 16: 5 runs, 55.9 km, 4:35 hrs
Week 6 of 16: 4 runs, 44.1 km, 3:31 hrs
Week 5 of 16: 4 runs, 53.3 km, 4:21 hrs
Week 4 of 16: 5 runs, 65.8 km, 5:38 hrs
Week 3 of 16: 4 runs, 58.3 km, 4:46 hrs
Week 2 of 16: 4 runs, 52.4 km, 4:30 hrs
Week 1 of 16: 4 runs, 50.1 km, 4:11 hrs
Total: 61 runs, 784.3 km, 66:01 hrs