Running and Resting in my head

7 weeks to the Lausanne Marathon.
5 weeks to the Phedippidations World Half Marathon Challenge (at Henley on Thames)
6 days to the Robin Hood Nottingham Half Marathon.

Week 1 - 40.
Week 2 - 39
Week 3 - 36
Week 4 - 31
Week 5 - 19
Week 6 - 26
Week 7 - 61 (!!!!) Long run 1 - 16 miles.
Week 8 - 24
Week 9 - 50 Long run 2 - 18 miles
Week 10 - 50
Week 11 - 10

6 week average 37 miles (must get to 40!)

My weight has crept up to 86.5 kg (down 5.6 kgs in 12 weeks)

Not good. Not good at all.....

As I write this I cannot really decide whether I am an injured runner or not. Sometimes you read trite stuff written by life coaches, sports psychologists and business school teachers about goal setting and achieving, overcoming obstacles and using your inner resources to defeat adversity. None of these wide expanses of text give you any advice about achilles tendonitis, a frustrating obstacle that the runner comes up against that cannot be dealt with by any resources that the body or mind can call upon.

As referred to in my last training report, this bout of tendonitis has crept up on me almost unnoticed. It is not surprising considering the increase in mileage that I had subjected my 50 year old body to, but nevertheless it has dealt me a heavy blow and I am now trying to engage the intellect with a strategy that gets me to the start line in Lausanne in 6 weeks from now. At that point I will know that I can probably deal with whatever that marathon has in store for me, but I have to get there first.

After two 50 mile weeks, the last two runs during which finished in some considerable discomfort, I backed off considerably last week. In fact I completed just two runs on grassland, totalling 10 miles. Mind you, it was very nice grassland - on the Duke of Marlborough's back lawn! The worrying thing is that on the first occasion I was fine for 40 minutes or so and then the soreness began to become uncomfortable, stiffening up considerably later. Two days later this began after 2o minutes. Today I am going to run again on the roads and it will be a really important test for the next 6 weeks as I lead up to the marathon.

I've decided that this will be another easy week, perhaps with some swimming, but that I will start in Nottingham unless in pain and see how I go. I will not try to run through pain though and will pull out if it really gets uncomfortable. This race is not my key objective and I must be self-controlled and remember it. Tough for me. Next monday I will have to set my Lausanne strategy up and however demanding the cross-training parts are I will have to stick to them. It will be an incredible exercise in self-discipline, but 26 children's schooling now depend on me and I owe it to the donors to deal with this setback.

The main problem apart from the occasional bouts of discomfort is that I miss the running! I had definitely re-discovered the joy and freedom of the sport after 15 years or so of being a bit of a running lightweight - allbeit an overweight lightweight! Positive thoughts flood in as the unused belt notches come into play and the daily entries get posted on the log. I had made promises to myself never to stop running again and had even begun to think of setting some more goals after Lausanne - a late winter marathon, an ultra, a mountain race, a trail challenge, even in my most delirious moments the Comrades. An overuse injury such as I now have is something of a reality shock to all this, perhaps a timely one. Slow down, Charlie - don't get carried away...but winter is on it's way now in the UK and getting out there will be harder and harder with more goals "down the road".

So next week's report will be an intersting one. I wonder - maybe I'll go to bed one night and it will have gone away by morning........