The end of last week was a bit flat for me. Everything had been going well, pacing was good, distances covered even felt better on the hills, but my right knee had been niggling at me since returning from Colorado where I had fallen landing badly landing on rocks (that will teach me to try and be a technical runner!!)
On Thursday I told myself that if I went out for a run and the knee was painful I would go straight back home, so as it turns out that’s exactly what I did, but thankfully had managed to get an appointment with my marvellous osteopath Ken the following morning. I always know when things aren’t working well, not just from the pain and discomfort but also I can feel myself running oddly and a blister appeared on my left foot on the side of my big toe – firstly I never get blisters there and secondly it was the first blister I have had this year.
Ken worked his magic by putting me through excruciating pain (I always feel as though he’s going to break my feet when he bends them – OUCH) and told me that there was still some swelling there from the fall, nothing serious but I was to stay off running for the next 5 days – biking and swimming but no running. Today was my tester run of 10k everything felt much better and knee behaved so am now feeling a lot happier.
Unfortunately it means that I have had to re-think my training for the next couple of weeks, but if I’m not ready now I never will be.
On Monday I went to London to give a talk at Mark Hines lecture series; he gave a great presentation on nutrition and hydration which was presented in a way that was easily understood. His next talk is in December where he will chat about injury prevention followed by a talk by James Adams – definitely going to that.
My spare bed is now covered in kit waiting to be packed for Greece, tickets, hotel reservations, medical form etc all printed. I have been trying to put the route of the race onto my Garmin for the return journey – I don’t want to get lost! but this is proving rather difficult as my computer can’t seem to find the garmin, however the route is also marked up on maps so fingers crossed I will manage to run back to the acropolis.
Part of my training has been looking at video footage of the Spartathlon so I can build a picture in my mind of the course, plus re-reading my blog post and any other information I can get my hands on. This prepares me mentally for the race which is as important as the physical training.
Two weeks to go …………. whose nervous? (me)
Happy Training.
