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Just a short blog today in my training for the London Marathon! My knees & muscles have not felt very good this week & it had me worried. After running 12 miles in week 8 I felt like I had really stepped up my game but my body felt the effects of it & did not want to recover. I decided rather than forcing too much on my tight IT band & aching knees I would make my 1st run of the week easy. So I went out for a 20-minute easy jog one morning & avoided any hills (which is tough in High Wycombe) to make sure there wasn’t any added pressure on my knees. I was hoping that after a lot of rest they would start to feel better but before I knew it run 2 was upon me & I still had problems with my IT band. I plodded through it but my biggest worry was the long run that I had coming up – 14 miles *gulp* over half marathon distance *gulp gulp*…
The morning arrived & I was in Ascot for the weekend which meant I had plenty of familiar areas to run around (Ascot Racecourse is always a great place to run). My knees were still not fantastic, it was raining & the wind was insanely strong but the determined little person in my brain switched on & said, ‘you are getting out there no matter what!‘. I decided to go out running as close to the London Marathon start time as possible to get my body used to how it would feel. 9.30am I was off & from the get-go, my body was against me. However, 3 hours of constant running & walking, battling rough wind, rain & knee pain & I completed all 14 miles! Yes, I was super slow, but the bottom line was I did it & it was a huge accomplishment physically & mentally.
I think the error I made last week was not giving my body the recovery it needed after my long run. So this time, I gently stretched out every part of my body, used my muscle stick to roll out my calves, got food & drink in me to re-energize myself & took a relaxing hot bath to release the tension in my muscles.
We shall find out next week to see if my recovery process did the trick. Here’s a summary of my runs:
Week 9 Run 1 – 28/02/19
Shorter morning run to allow my legs to fully recover after my 12 miles long run. I decided to mix things up & take a slightly different route through the park which was lovely.
Week 9 Run 2 – 02/03/19
I seem to be mixing up my route this week which also helps keep your mind on its toes. My ITB was pretty tight so I need to loosen it before tomorrow’s long run…
Week 9 Run 3 – 03/03/19
Hit over Half Marathon distance my goodness! My knees still aren’t right so I was incredibly slow & there was a lot of stopping & starting involved but I feel amazing all the same. Ran around Ascot & Sunningdale as I was at my parent’s. The weather brought a lot of wind & rain.
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