Taper time

The timings of my key events has not been good and has meant I have had quite a lot of taper/recovery time all too close together.

I had a mini taper for the London marathon then it was only 3 weeks until the 100km so by the time I was recovered enough from London to train hard it was time to taper for the 100km!

With 6 weeks between the 100km and my 24 hour race I had to skimp on 100km recovery in order to get back up to some sort of decent mileage as it had been a long time since my 100mile weeks!

Following the 100km I had 2 rest days then did low easy paced miles.  At the end of the week I did  the womens running 10km in Birmingham.  This was a 9bar sponsored event; I was the 9bar representative so was interviewed before the race.  I had no expectations of a good time, just wanted to have a nice jog around.  When I lined up at the front and all but about 5 people were standing behind the sub 50 pacer my competitive head appeared (my PB is 39.29).  I set of fairly hard and within a few minutes was in 3rd place.  My legs were struggling to even hit half marathon pace as they were far from recovered.  After about 2km I took the lead and stayed there until the end despite having to stop to re tie my shoe lace!

The pace of the 10km told me I still had some recovering to do so the next week just focused on getting the miles in and didn't bother to do any speed work as for 24 hour races I felt it was more important to get my weekly miles up. 

At the end of the week it was the White Peak marathon which I was using as a training run, I wanted to do a bit more than just jog round so ran at a purposeful type pace rather than my usual long run plodding pace.  It was a very warm day and water was in cups so I walked through the stations and even stopped to fill my bottle - I've not done that for a long time.  Was reasonably happy with 3.38 for the effort level.  Ended the week on 104 miles.

The next week was a bit disrupted with 3 days in Cambridge for examiners meetings which I find more tiring than normal work as they are so intense and there was no time for a lunchtime run! I ran in the evening and managed to get lost.  I knew running would be a bit tricky so front loaded the week.   I attempted my first speed session but it was rubbish so aborted it as there was not point flogging it when I was clearly tired. 

Had big ideas about doing 40 miles on Sunday but it was hot and I was tired.  It was one of those runs where I was just not feeling the love.  Had I not got a bit of OCD with hitting 100 miles for the week I probably would have given up after 10 miles!  I felt I had no energy, it was only after that I twigged I had set off at 1pm having only had breakfast; it was about lunchtime so by 10 miles was well past lunch so no wonder I was weak - I had missed a meal and was trying to run a meal down.  Battled through 30 miles as that is what I needed to hit 100 miles for the week!

Last week was to be my 3rd 100 mile week before tapering.  Whilst I might sometimes appear to be chasing mileage targets I do know when to back off and this week was one of those times as I picked up a glute injury/niggle on Wednesday.  I think it is due to the hill training I have been doing.  Its been slightly grumbly for a week or so then 4 miles into my run it suddenly went almost into spasm.  It was even painful to walk.  Had a stretch then ran home in pain. 

Managed to get an emergency half hour massage treatment (that was all he could spare) on Thursday where lots of elbow work and painful treatment was given.  Had a short test run on Friday and it was a lot better, I still felt something but not the spasm, more just a bit of tenderness from the treatment.

Saturday was the Kent Road Runner marathon which I wanted to run quite hard (as a kind of tempo run for the 24 hour race) but not all out race pace.   The marathon is 17 laps with hills.  Hammering down the hill would not be good for my glute and running uphill would be putting strain on it.  I wasn't even sure I would make it to the end as I had only do a short test run.  I was quite prepared to stop if I was in pain.

I set off quite hard, a bit too fast then after a few laps settled into a more comfortable but still quite hard pace.  I didn't take a great deal of notice of my time as I was more interested in running to effort.  I maintained around the same effort throughout so the pace gradually slowed.  I could have made an effort to maintain the pace but was not prepared to do that with the 24 hour race being 2 weeks away and it was another hot day so I preferred not to push it too much.

Finished in 3.25.56 and 2nd lady.  This was a fair bit slower than my PB but at the end of a hard 3 week block and I wasn't giving it my full effort so am quite pleased with that.  My sister was running her 3rd marathon and managed to get herself a Good for Age so she was happy too.

Quads were a bit sore on Sunday but I managed a couple of runs to take my weekly miles up to 90.

Now its time to wrap myself in cotton wool and taper for the 24 hour race.