2010 Progress Entrant - Jayne Hall

Contents:- -Intro- Report -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14-

Report 9 - Week beginning 01/03/10

Week 9? I can't believe how quickly the time is passing. It's the Kilomathon next Sunday and this week I've been questioning whether I should do it or not.

I started the week out feeling good. After the sports massage on Saturday last week I was pretty sore and achey on Sunday so I didn't run but by Monday I felt a lot better and ran a six mile route with Portia at 8 min mile pace. This was followed on Wednesday with a fast 5.5 mile run with the club. Unfortunately I turned my ankle on some rough ground on the canal path and ended up hobbling back to the club which was a real downer. I didn't think it was too bad and iced it back at the club house but by the morning it was pretty sore. So I didn't run on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. Just to compound things I woke up on Thursday morning with a really sore throat and by Friday I was really suffering with a nasty head cold accompanied by a temperature and painful sinus's and ears.

You just have to philosophical about these things. I guess about 75% of people can't complete a full training schedule for an endurance event ' generally everyone will either get a minor injury or cold during the 16 week build up to a marathon or similar event. A training schedule is an 'ideal'. I know from experience that missing a week or two from a schedule will not really effect your performance on the day as I have completed marathons before where I've been injured for 3 weeks and unable to run and still competed and finished the event.

The problem is psychological 'you worry that you haven't done enough and once you start doubting yourself you will have problems and start talking yourself out of it. I wanted to do 14 miles this weekend. I have completed 2 twelve milers, a fifteen and a half marathon in preparation for the kilomathon. I just felt that my fifteen miler was 4 weeks ago and wanted to do a slow 14 miles before the race. So, (probably completely unnecessarily!!) I got up Sunday morning and did 14 miles even though I felt pretty grim. It was a beautiful morning in Blackpool, very cold and frosty with a bright blue cloudless sky. It took a while to convince myself I was OK and the seven mile run out was punctuated by frequent stops to retie my shoe laces, look at the pier, check out the work being carried out by my company to repair the tram tracks, blow my nose..... Any excuse to walk a bit! I ran all the way on the beach as the tide was right out and at seven miles I turned inland and headed up onto the cliffs for the run back.

I went back faster than I went out and decided that if I could do that I couldn't really be THAT ill...! I was pretty wiped out for the rest of the day though! Still, it's now Monday morning, the start of a new week and though I'm still sneezing and snottering I do feel a bit better and will cut my mileage right down this week ready for Sunday's event. Bring it on...!!!!