Hello everyone - well, it's been a while.
My last post was probably back in April - my traumatic London Marathon race report. I went in under-cooked having picked up a small tear in my Achilles which resulted in a 5 week taper instead of a 3 or 2 week one. And I ran with the injury of course. With the heat, it was a brutal experience for most of us. And I lost 2 toe-nails which subsequently got infected and required antibiotics. Yum.
I did a bit of cardio stuff in the gym for a few weeks afterwards, but life stuff and holidays eventually got in the way and it seemed sensible to take a complete break from running ... and I didn't run again until 6 weeks ago (5 month break!) when I re-started C25K (helping to lead our 7th lunchtime C25K group at work) as a way of getting back into a routine. The Achilles was feeling a lot better but has improved even more with me restarting, all-be-it at a very gentle pace (for me) to protect the tendon and ensure I don't want to throw away the time I've invested in allowing it to recover.
I'm up to about 15 miles/week now (extra kms post-C25K runs) and this morning did my 1st proper parkrun since December last year. Took it very easy and finished in 27:31 - my slowest ever, but that last km was hard with me pushing a bit. As a test of the Achilles, having run for 55 mins yesterday, it went fine with no adverse effects so far.
The cardio is nowhere near what it was, but I know I have to be patient. I haven't done any proper intervals yet but I'm hoping to start them this week on the treadmill and see some cardio gains.
Maybe daft, but I've booked a place at the Manchester Marathon on April 7th. A 16 week plan would begin early December. Good job I've taken out the £5 insurance so I can pull out in case of injury!
