Training day 51 - 10 miles. Slow

The weather finally relented enough to let me get out there on the roads again. Today was supposed to be a 13 mile run but it just wasnt there at any point today. From the very beginning i was struggling and during the last couple of miles The wind started to pifk up and it was highly unplEasant iut there. It was a bonus that at the 10 mile point I reach my house so i could just nip in. As it happens the wind picked up and the rain started almost as soon as i came in so i was glad. Calf feels a little dodgy but not too bad considering the distance so lets see how it is tomorrow cause i would like to get out and make up for today

Training day 50 - 10K tempo run

The weather out there was still horrific yesterday so it was the tread mill again. Thus makes a tempo run a lot easier or what i understand is a tempo run. From what i have read it is maintaining a pace a percentage faster than your race pace over a distance so yesterday i did 6 miles @ 8 min 20 sec per mile which considering where i am at is 25 secs per mile faster than the 8.45 i want ti be doing for my marathon target time. I even cranked up the pace over the last mile. No reaction from my calf and felt pretty good after the effort. Seemed to recover quite quickly. Ok it was the treadmill but needs must when the weather is as bad as it is just now. Hopefully it will improve tomorrow because by my schedule it should be a 13 miler tomorrow. I have given myself a rest today simply because my calf feels a little tight and the weather is crap today again. Fingers crossed for tomorrow

Training day 49 - quick 6K

The weather has just not calmed down and in fact it has got worse. The rain is non stop and it is still blowing a gale so my quick 6K was on a treadmill. It was going to be 10K but i had a twinge in my calf so erred on the side of safety and stopped after 6K. Plus i have to admit I was rather hung over after a night of whisky madness so i was probably sweating pure alcohol!!!

Again we will wait and see how it feels tomorrow before i decide if i am going to run tomorrow

Training day 48 - a nice, steady 6 miles

Its seems that after the problems with my right calf i have learned to manage my injuries a bit better. Went out yesterday to test out my left calf and did a good 6 miles. I was aware of the calf all the way round but it didnt give me any problems and i dont seem to have a reaction from it today which is good. Was planning to do another 6 miler today to get me back on schedule but it is rainin cats n dogs and blowing a gale out there just now so we will see how the weather looks when i het back from my trip into Glasgow. If the wind has settled down i will go out. Dont mind the wet but hate running in the wind. Nothin worse

Training day 47 - quickish 4 miles

After resting up the calf for another day I was straight out of bed and pounding the pavements (sidewalks for any americans who stumble onto this blog) I had planned to do 5 miles but 2 things came into play. Firstly I was acutely aware of my tender calf and secondly i set out and maintained a reasonably quick pace. The calf started to come into play at about 3 miles so not wanting to stress it anymore than necessary I decided the best thing to do was cut the run to 4 miles. The second factor started to come into play over the last quarter mile or so cause I was seriously starting to run out of steam. Having only ran 3 times in about 10 days I was feeling it. Anyway. The calf feels not too bad just now. We will see how it is tomorrow and it might be the case that I need to rest it up again.

Training Day 46 - gentle 2.5 miles

Had to give my left calf some rest for the last 3 days so yesterday I thought i would try it out with a gentle 2.5 miles. Came through it ok but will give it a day off again today then try and up the miles tomorrow. Im only six weeks away from being at the same time o year when i started training for my last marathon. This time i have put in a lot more miles but already had 2 injuries and a heavy cold!!! Hopefully this will be the end of the injuries and its plain sailing til the day of the marathon!!

Day 45 - gentle 5 miles

I gave myself 2 days off because would you believe my left calf is now playing up and is on the verge of popping exactly like my right one did. I cannot believe it!!

I ran a gentle 5 miles and there was a little bit of trouble from the calf but today it has been bad and i made it worse in the gym and i wasn't even running!! Was supposed to do more hill work tonight but have gave that a pass and will see how it goes tomorrow. If it feels ok i will probably have to give it another day of rest

Day 44 - 13 miles

Hoorah. After all my worries of the other it all went right yesterday with my big run. It honestly could not have gone better apart from the fact my tracker didnt register the first mile of my run but hey ho

I started off at a pace that felt really comfortable but which i thought i could maintain and thats what i did. I just kept goin and it was only really in the last 2 miles that the pace started to drop but thats hardly surprising since this was the longest run of my training so far

I was rightly knackered when i was finished n it did take a wee while to feel normal again!!! Today my left calf is a bit tight and sore, hopefully that will ease and the knees are a bit sore but not too bad other than that. Rest day today and back into it tomorrow

Day 43 - 3.5 miles

Just a short easy run to loosen of the legs and boy were they sore. I have to say that i am really goin through a tough time at the moment. I seem to have hit a brick wall and every run feels really hard. Tomorrow is a tough day goin by my schedule so we will see how it goes. Hopefully i will get over this hump soon. Im hoping its just done to the run of shifts ive been on and the fact im pretty tired

Day 41 & 42 - 10K and hill sprints

Its been a really busy week so i havent managed to get out there as often as I would have liked. Monday I managed my hilly 10k the hard way round. Ended up finishing 35secs faster than the last time I did it. This I think was mostly down to the fact I had managed to maintain my pace on the tough first 4k cause i really was struggling during the last 1k

Today was hill sprints. A repeat of the ones I did last week. This is because I am esentially redoing the second week of my schedule due to not getting put as much as I wanted recently as i already said. This is the advantage of starting my training and following my schedule so early. It allows me to catch up if i miss stuff. Hopefully get out for 4ish miles tomorrow and then a big run on Friday

Day 40 - gentle 4.5 miles

Tonight as the heading says was a gentle run. The legs were still a bit heavy after yesterdays sprints so this was just to loosen them off. I ran round Strathclyde park but when i got to the motherwell side it was pitch black and very difficult to see. That meant i couldn't really run with any confidence as i couldn't really see where i was putting my feet, but its done no mishaps ao thats the important thing

Day 39 - hill sprints

8 x 40secs hill sprints. God i hate these. I would much rather just run for miles and miles rayher than do these but i did do them.

Jog to the foot of a near by hill and try and run up it as fast as i can for 40secs turn round jog back to the bottom and repeat until its done 8 times. I hate it because they absolutely knock you out but i understand what they do and the benefits that can be gained form doing them

Plus all this is helping to lose that holiday weight!!