London marathon training log/blog

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Handy enough run today. Legs feel fine. Shin is still a little tender but should be ok as I'm staying on grass tomorrow and Wednesday. Todays run was half on trail half on road. Average pace was 7.12.

Decided to change my training shoes for a new pair. The older ones look perfect but I've logged about 600-700 miles in them, so am changing in case they had contributed to shin pain.

I had slight problems with my shins mid last week, so everything has been on grass since then and seem to have recovered. How much are you doning on road these days?

TheRoadRunner

shels4ever wrote: »

I had slight problems with my shins mid last week, so everything has been on grass since then and seem to have recovered. How much are you doning on road these days?

Should be OK in a couple of days. 50/50 on grass/road at the moment. Some of the grass trails are rock hard though due to lack of rain (not complaining by the way). It's something new to moan about

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Should be OK in a couple of days. 50/50 on grass/road at the moment. Some of the grass trails are rock hard though due to lack of rain (not complaining by the way). It's something new to moan about

I know what you mean, The park is fairly hard at the moment, I felt it in the legs after the run on Sat..

TheRoadRunner

Ran pyramid today 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 minutes with one minute recovery. My legs were a little tired from Saturdays effort and my shin is still a little tender so didn't want to push it too hard. Was still an excellent session and was comparable to previous weeks with less effort on my behalf so happy days.

Going to ice my shin tonight and hope to get 13 miles in tomorrow on grass with Stupid_Private.

TheRoadRunner

Met up with Stupid_Private and ran a nice handy 12 miles mostly on grass.

Pain in my shin has disappeared but I now have a slight calf strain which most probably was the root cause of my shin pain. It feels like I have a dead leg in my calf, if that makes sense.

Cut yesterdays run a little short as didn't want to cause any unnecessary damage to my calf. Will also take today off a precaution. Should be 100% for tomorrow but if not I'll take that off too.

I have also decided to skip the BEAST hill run this weekend. Running up the side of a hill with a weakened calf would be asking for trouble. Will probably run my LSR in the phoenix park instead.

TheRoadRunner

I'm so glad I didn't bring my gear in with me today. I would love yo go for a run in the sunshine and if had runners to hand would be out the door, sore calf or not.

I feel like a fat feck for taking an unscheduled rest day :rolleyes: Runners OCD I think, has to be a mental disease !

Tapers starts in a couple of weeks. So not looking forward to it !

kennyb3

Fat bastard? ha ha made me laugh!! not with your times mate!! runners OCD is right. injured myself at the moment and these bright sunny evenings are killing me

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I'm so glad I didn't bring my gear in with me today. I would love yo go for a run in the sunshine and if had runners to hand would be out the door, sore calf or not.

I feel like a fat feck for taking an unscheduled rest day :rolleyes: Runners OCD I think, has to be a mental disease !

Tapers starts in a couple of weeks. So not looking forward to it !

Clasic I do the same on rest days have to make sure i dont put the gear in the car, and can never have a rest day if working from home as my gear and the door are too close....

TheRoadRunner

Calf still a little tender today so went to see physio. As well as having a calf strain I also have poxy shin splints :eek:

Physio reckons I should be ok though and has told me I can run over the weekend but to put off my long run until Tuesday if I'm still tight so this is my current plan.

I'm hoping that the calf will loosen out though by Sunday and if it does and I feel 100% I will get the long run in the bag. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and Sunday. I don't want to do anything stupid and get injured.

Physio is a runner himself and is absolutely brilliant. Wanted to hit him a couple of times he was hurting me so much but can't recommend him highly enough.

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Calf still a little tender today so went to see physio. As well as having a calf strain I also have poxy shin splints :eek:

Physio reckons I should be ok though and has told me I can run over the weekend but to put off my long run until Tuesday if I'm still tight so this is my current plan.

I'm hoping that the calf will loosen out though by Sunday and if it does and I feel 100% I will get the long run in the bag. I'll see how I feel tomorrow and Sunday. I don't want to do anything stupid and get injured.

Physio is a runner himself and is absolutely brilliant. Wanted to hit him a couple of times he was hurting me so much but can't recommend him highly enough.

ah poxy shin splints is right , have suffered a lot at there hands in the past but hope i've now seen the back of them.. My thing is to find the cause which looks like you havd done, same physio again this time? Think i'm going to go see them again soon too

TheRoadRunner

shels4ever wrote: »

ah poxy shin splints is right , have suffered a lot at there hands in the past but hope i've now seen the back of them.. My thing is to find the cause which looks like you havd done, same physio again this time? Think i'm going to go see them again soon too

No different one. They are close to where I work so just rang them yesterday afternoon to see if they had a cancellation.

Calf feels better today. I togged out and was going to run. Ran about 100 metres and felt some minor tightness. I decided to call it a day in the hope that an extra rest day will totally clear it up. I hate missing training but I have to make sure I'm not carrying this on marathon race day. More ice, anti-inflammatories and maybe another rest day tomorrow should shift it. Have another physio appointment Monday morning also.

TheRoadRunner

Ran today. Calf is still a little dodgy. The best way to describe it is it feels like a dead leg. Physio reckons it is ok to run on as long as I don't do anything too quick so I put my trust in his advice and headed out today. Actually didn't feel too bad and I think this should be sorted totally in a couple of days.

10 miles @ 6.40 pace today. Total miles for week was around 44.

TheRoadRunner

7 uncomfortable miles on grass followed by a tortuous physio session. Physio is happy that calf and shin are on the mend, I wish I could be as positive. Have ice strapped to my leg, going to rename myself Ice-T

TheRoadRunner

I'm icing my leg at the moment and did so all last evening. It seems to be helping. Helped me run today anyway. Ice and anti-inflammatories seem to be doing the trick. Turns out yesterdays run on rough terrain did nothing for my calf/shin. I ran on the road today. 8 miles @ 6.35 pace.

Physio got in very deep at yesterdays session and has really helped. His electrotherapy treatment after the massage sent my calf muscle, hamstring and arse into a major spasm

I honestly thought this shin splint was going to seriously mess up my marathon. It was so sore, felt like a stress fracture (although I've never had one ). I sometimes over analyse training at times but this strain felt really wrong. The flip side of this little episode is that I have decided to still run my initial target time, however I'm going to take a leaf out of Stupid_Privates book and run how I feel on the 26th of April. I really don't need the hassle of a time barrier and I should beat my old PB if I can stay injury free so I'm going to go with the flow.

Off for some warm weather training tomorrow. I'm going solo so I'll be sleeping-eating-running-eating-sleeping solid for the next 5 days

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Off for some warm weather training tomorrow. I'm going solo so I'll be sleeping-eating-running-eating-sleeping solid for the next 5 days

Well for some , Enjoy.

TheRoadRunner

shels4ever wrote: »

Well for some , Enjoy.

cheers. It's my way of giving two fingers to the recession

TheRoadRunner

9 miles @ 6.44 pace. Wanted to run before flying. Calf tight due to early morning start. Not a fan of morning running and probably didn't drink enough before run so minor dehydration and not enough stretching did tight tendons no favours :rolleyes: Will do plenty of stretching this afternoon and icing this evening.

Abhainn

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Off for some warm weather training tomorrow. I'm going solo so I'll be sleeping-eating-running-eating-sleeping solid for the next 5 days

Best of luck. You sound like a pro. You can tell us all about it when you see fit.

Racing Flat

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Off for some warm weather training tomorrow. I'm going solo so I'll be sleeping-eating-running-eating-sleeping solid for the next 5 days

If the weather improves I'll be doing some warm weather training myself here in Dublin. With 5 days off, great oppurtunity!!!

TheRoadRunner

Well last few days was a disaster. Calf is finally clearing up but the root of the problem is a shin splint which is very, very, very sore.

I have been doing plenty of stretching and I think it is slowly improving but I don't know if I'll risk a marathon on it ! I will do a stress test of sorts on it in a week or so and make a final decision then.

It's all very frustrating but I'm not toeing the line if there is a risk of a DNF or even worse one of those dudes dressed up as a whale or telephone box passing me out at mile 20.

I'm definitely not targeting another marathon this year if London doesn't work out. I have holiday and work commitments that I'm not willing to change for a later marathon.

If anybody has any hints, tips or insights into dealing with shin splints I'd be delighted to hear them.

ManFromAtlantis

no tips but hope it works out. as joe duffy would say ' i feel your pain'

--amadeus--

No tips from here other than to say I think you're doing the right thing. The lesson of the last couple of weeks racing for all of us is that a few % wrong before you start can lead to a lot of heartache and pain.

Best of luck with it, fingers crossed it'll ease enough for you to race.

heffsarmy

I've been lurking at your thread for the last few weeks, some great training and hard work you put in. Hopefully your shins will be ok fine before London. A few weeks ago I done Connemarthon half which left my right calf in a heap, I was gutted as I though it fecked my chances of doing Edinburgh marathon, got some phsyio and back on track yesterday with a 20miler. Hope it works out for you, good luck.

Ciaran15

Road runner-i'm running London too and have been injured as well so feel ur pain and frustration. The only thing i'm doing now is focusing on the fun aspect of the day. Fair play on ur training as i,m sure like me u found it tough over the snowy snap to get out there-by the looks of it you've put the work in and with some sensible tapering u should be good on the day! Best of luck and sure maybe I'll see you there.

TheRoadRunner

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Well last few days was a disaster. Calf is finally clearing up but the root of the problem is a shin splint which is very, very, very sore.

I have been doing plenty of stretching and I think it is slowly improving but I don't know if I'll risk a marathon on it ! I will do a stress test of sorts on it in a week or so and make a final decision then.

I've been reading back through my log and I reckon I may be absolutely nuts. I'm up and down day to day. Just goes to show how good/bad training can effect your daily mood :rolleyes:

Good news and bad news about my shin. The good news is that the calf muscle are no longer is spasm and are nearly back to 100%. I get the odd spasm in them but nothing too drastic. I have managed to strengthen it also with a good regime of 3 times a day stretches.

The bad news is that the shin splint in my right shin is still bothering me. I ran on it 2 days ago and it was not a pleasant experience. Once I got going it did loosen up a little but was still very painful. I had physio treatment again yesterday and he reckons I should be able to get around without causing my leg any damage so I am definitely going to run. I have one more physio session planned and in the mean time he has shown me where I need to manipulate to try and get rid of some of the scar tissue that is currently on the tendon.

The shin pain is quite severe and while I think I have a decent threshold for pain it is the sort of pain that slowly grinds one down. I'm hoping that little or no running for the last week and coming week will help reduce swelling in the shin tendon and help me get some pain free miles in early in the race.

I have never entered a marathon without a time target and this one is not going to be any different. My current PB works out at around 6.29 a mile. I will try to run at this pace for the first 10 miles and after that I will reassess my condition. Aerobically ~6.30 pace won't be a problem, even the inactivity of the last while shouldn't hamper me too much (fingers crossed), it's the biomechanics of my right foot that need to be monitored. 2.40 will have to wait for another day.

I plan on doing some cross training on an ellipitical runner over the coming days to help maintain some of my fitness. If things go wrong on the day and I have to drop out or limp to a stinker than so be it. I have put a decent amount of effort into this marathon and have done everything in my power to be right for the day but if it doesn't work out then so be it.

I'm hoping I don't come across as a nutter in this post

ManFromAtlantis

im no expert. sometime the shins are very sore to start and it feels a bit better after a few miles. if your physio reckons it wont do damage to your leg, would you think of using pain killers ? i dont know if i would but i'm just asking the question. somebody might have experience.
good luck anyhow.

TheRoadRunner

ManFromAtlantis wrote: »

im no expert. sometime the shins are very sore to start and it feels a bit better after a few miles. if your physio reckons it wont do damage to your leg, would you think of using pain killers ? i dont know if i would but i'm just asking the question. somebody might have experience.
good luck anyhow.

Thanks, yeah they do loosen up after a while but are still quite sore. I'm chomping on anti inflamatories at the moment and plan on taking advil before I run so that should help.

Woddle

Your doing all you can, so not much more I can offer other than promoting the use of the foam roller but I'm sure your using sth similar, I know from reading a post rf wrote where he said shin splints cover a wide range of possible injuries in that area. When I had shin splints, I sorted it by ibrufon evry 4-6 hours, ice whenever I could, rest and the foam roller to help stretch the calf as I could pin point the problem causing my shin splints and it was tight calves.
Best of luck but I don't think you need it, I think that positive attitude of yours is all you need.

Abhainn

Hi RF

I'm really glad your going ahead with London and its great to see your up beat mood.
I'd bet during the race itself your shins will be fine.
I remember having a lot of discomfort in my knee last year in the weeks up to the Conn marathon and even the morning of the race.
If it wasn't because I was running for a good cause and alot of money had been raised I would not have run. But I carried a couple of Neurfen in my back pocket planning to use them.
Well knee didn't bother me in thes lightest during the race, and never had to use the pain killers.
(I started using glucosamine & chondroitin immediately after , knees are perfect now)

Good luck in the last week

ike

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I'm hoping I don't come across as a nutter in this post

Nah...Sounds about right for a taper . Best of luck hope it goes well for you