First race of the year has now been
and gone.
This was the first running of the Headcorn Half Marathon,
and advertised as a dead flat race route.
Given the fact that I've
got little running under the belt so far this year, (3 runs of varying
distances in total!), this was to be more experimental than anything.
I wanted to see how the
Calf healed up, concentrate on a slight change in technique I've been planning,
and concentrate on trying to pace myself a bit better. I was aiming for a 1:45.
Well, 'flat' my arse! Although you
couldn't call it hilly exactly, it most certainly was not pan-flat. This and
the seemingly constant head winds made it a slightly firmer challenge than
expected.
The calf is holding up really well.
There is now zero pain, but it gets tight down the outside edge quite quickly,
so I'll still continue to 'work' on it. There is also a small point of inflammation
on the right hand shin that developed, so I'll also be treating this. Hypochondria
setting it?
Pacing also went completely out of
the window! Although I really tried not to go too fast too soon (I didn't even
try and chase a team mate as he shot off at the start), I still found that I
was in the mid to high 7 minute mile pace for the first 5 of 6 miles. This
typically results in my complete drop off in pace at about the 10 mile marker.
I'll have to work on this.
I'm not in to religiously
training by the watch (you can get some fantastic GPS based training watches
nowadays), I really should religiously CHARGE THE BLOODY THING UP!! I was going
to use this to at least monitor my progress through the race to learn by, but
it ran out of juicy at mile 4! Burk.
The concentration faded with the
miles too, so the focus on Technique went, and I could only think about the
tightness across my shoulders / neck and upper back. I'm not generally prone to
this, so guess it was something to do with the wind and maybe a need to loosen
up a bit more (spent too much time chatting before the race I think!).
It’s been just over a day since the
race and the leg ache has already gone (after a nice gentle bike ride in shorts
and tee shirt in the sun for the first time this year (starting to cultivate
the Tan Lines already) so real pleased about the recovery.
Experiment or not, the race time was
1:44:34 in the end, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Next stop - Paddock Wood Half Marathon
in 4 weeks. Bring it on!
W
Finally, progress ......
Running has been a little
concerning for me over the last couple of posts (as some of you have noticed).
Trying to drop little
niggling injuries to the LHS Calf had taken a lot longer than I had initially
hoped for. I had been religiously using the Foam Roller, self-massage and
stretching to ease tightness, using all manner of gloop and lotions in an
attempt to help cure.
The frustration was that I
knew that I had to wait for the injury to heal fully before I went through the
process of gait analysis and new trainers, then on to concentrating about the
run technique work and building up the miles. If i'd tried to er.... run before
I can walk, then I'd create more problems.
Since the other training is
going exactly as intended, the fact that running was lagging behind only added
to the frustration.
However, I was a good
little soldier and a really good trip to the Physio taking in some acupuncture
did seem to trigger a recovery. A week later and the pain and soreness had
completely gone. A further 4 days of no running left me happy enough to do the
gait analysis (showing Over-pronation) and one shiny new pair of trainers later
and I'm back on the road TFFT!
So only a couple of runs to
date, building up real slowly. A 5 k and then a gentle 7.5 miler without a
hitch.
I must say, feeling
comfortable on the bike and with core / gym exercises, I'd not even considered
that running would be so draining on the legs. It'll only be a short time
before it comes back to me, but it does show that I've got some catching up to
do.
I'll stick to my training
plan to make sure I don't overdo the run in an enthusiastic effort to catch up
though. Plenty of time yet.
I'll also make sure I keep
up the roller and pampering to keep the calfs in tip top condition. I'm sure
there will be other niggles to come along, but I'll just have to make sure that
any training I do is as positive as possible to compensate for those times that
I need to ease off for a while.
Bike is going good - except
for the fact that it's even too muddy for the MTB, so plenty of catching up on
films in the shed.
Swim is going great. slowly
transitioning for technique to a little speed work (although not too speedy if
you get what I mean!!).
Also built in 2 Core
sessions a week into my plan for those 'lighter' mornings.
I've got a local 1/2
marathon at the weekend. I'll post again after that to present the progress.
Naturally not expecting too much form this, so will treat it as a purely training
exercise..... until the gun goes :).
W.
