Running & Supporting

Tomorrow is the GLA-EDI-Double-Marathon (GEDM) and I will be back in my supporting role for Thomas. I am actually getting quite excited as the weather looks good, the path seems to be in good condition and Thomas is certainly up for it. His training has been going well, no serious injuries just now (usual hamstring niggles and the occasional “scare” of aches and pains here and there) and no recent race. There will be a lot of fast runners including Lucy (who will want to defend her title, “Go Lucy Go!” I will have a spare bottle for you this year in case you need it towards the end!) and Marcus Scotney, George Cairns, some (to me) unknown “sprinters” and Thomas of course! :-)
He is under instructions though to go easy as this is part of his training for bigger things to come – but when did he ever listen to me?!

Well, how has my own training been over the past few weeks? Last week saw me doing my highest “mileage” yet – 70K. I know it is not much compared to what others do regularly, but for me it is a step up. Largely due to 2 longer runs at the weekend. Initially planned to be run on the WHW, but when our club race got cancelled due to high snow on the hills above Greenock, it was obvious that that was not a good idea. So I ran with some girls from the club who did their last long run before the Barcelona Marathon. On Sunday I ran with them again, only they did a shorter route and I ran to the club from the house and back with a few loops around Greenock. That gave me nearly 30M already for the week. They do start rather early in the morning when I usually still enjoy my warm bed, but hey – the things you do to get some running in!

I then had my 1st sports massage on Tuesday. Thomas had been on to me for a while to get one, but I did not really feel I needed it with my low mileage etc. But after the weekend I felt I had “earned” it. So I went and came back with a huge list of “problem areas”: bilateral Achilles tendinopathy (no tendinitis yet), tight calves, tight quads and tight right hamstring. Well, at least my right ITB is better! I sort of knew about the Achilles problem, but have opted to ignore it for the last 12 months and just tried not to run fast (well what I would call fast). It only is a problem when my husband tries to apply friction massage (which he insists on doing, with good intent I know) or when he makes me endure an ice-cold foot bath after a run! But the sports massage felt really good after the initial pain subsided! The passive stretches that came at the end made the massage seem rather relaxing! All this despite the fact that I am actually one of those people who do a little stretching routine after each run – obviously not enough. So I might go back to get the Achilles problem sorted a bit more.