Progress?

4 miles, 30:49

Went to the physio today, who went through the usual 15 min history lesson and only 15 mins of actual physio work, then charged me €40. Such a crock of shit. During the 15 mins he got paid for, he found that I have a lot less mobility in my left hip than the right, and the pain in the hip flexor is a result of tightness in the quads. I have been instructed to take it very easy for a few days, although I am allowed to supplement actual running with aqua jogging. Sorted out a belt for the Trinity pool and will do that which I swore never to do again tomorrow.

The run itself wasn't too bad. Kept it extremely pedestrian, and after 5-10mins there was some release in the quads. Going to a physical therapist tomorrow who should spend a lot more time on massage therapy than talking about it. Tentative plan at the minute is aqua jog followed by 40min run tomorrow, aqua + 50 mins on Sat, and all going well finally get my 3x3 mile workout in on Sunday.

Being sensible

8 miles, 54:18

Gym

After yesterday's day off, the hip flexor has improved, but not as much as I would like. It's a nuisance, and most noticeable when getting up from sitting. It feels weak, as if the leg doesn't want to take my weight, but once moving its not restrictive. The run didn't aggravate it any worse than before, and the weights if anything seemed to improve it weirdly. Am supposed to workout tomorrow, but unless there's a dramatic improvement by morning I shall be postponing that till the weekend. Left a VM for the physio who I shall hopefully see in the next day or two and nip this in the bud. The work is pretty much done at this stage. Between now and the 26th, the only runs I want to get in are two workouts and 2 runs of medium length. Plenty of time between now and then to get them in and still have a decent taper. It's hard being smart!

Frustrated

6 miles, 43:04

The slight tightness in the left hip flexor I felt during the long run yesterday has manifested itself into something rather painful. Its annoying, especially as the rest of the legs felt extremely fresh, despite coming off Friday's workout and yesterday's long run. The fitness is good right now, I just got to make sure that I keep the legs in one piece. Between this and the foot the novelty of having soft tissue injuries vs. stress fractures has fully worn off at this stage and I'm now frustrated.

Bumping the day off up from Wednesday to tomorrow.

Long Run/Week in Review

20.1 miles, 136:56

This was by far the easiest long run I have done yet. The pace was slow, but it was the most relaxed I've felt at the end of one of these runs yet, which is promising. The foot was a non-issue, and aside from a little tightne

ss in the left hip flexor the legs felt very very good. Very pleased with how the week ended up given the way it started. This is the last 2+ hour run before the marathon, so was pleased it was so easy on the body.

Total for the week: 5 runs, 60.1 miles. Was a little surprised to see I broke 60 given I missed an extra day this week but the race last Saturday meant I got more miles in on Monday than normal. A good workout and long run sets me up nicely for the rest of the training cycle. 3 weeks from tomorrow!

As can be seen from the photos, the O'Connor's had a great night at the wedding on Friday, with a little cross dressing, some rocking out, and a shitload of air guitar.

Easy jog

5 miles, 36:16

Nice easy run to follow yesterday. Despite only getting ~4 hours sleep, then having to drive 2+ hours back from Tullamore, the legs felt pretty good on this trot. But since then, I've started to crash and burn quite severely. I need some sleep. The important thing was that despite bouncing around a dancefloor in dress shoes all night last night the foot was feeling good and improved from yesterday. Pics tomorrow.

Tempo

1.5 miles w/u

14.1 mile @ MP

1.4 mile c/d; 17 mile total

Happy with this workout good workout. Didn't get too many splits, but went through 3 miles in 17:50; the half 'thon in 77:14 and the last 3 miles in 17:46, for a total time of 83:02 (5:54 avg). Felt very easy for the first 8 miles, but had a rough patch from 8.5-11, mainly due to the fact that this stretch was all uphill and into the wind. After the route levelled out for the last 3 recovered nicely and the rest of the run felt very comfortable. The foot was fine, the anti-inflammatories seem to be doing the trick nicely.

The uncle's wedding was a quite unbelievable night. I managed to stay 100% sober, but yet had some amazing times on the dancefloor, in particular doing air guitar with the family as my uncle (a pretty amazing singer; he's been called the songbird of his generation by those that have heard him, that good) belted out House of the Rising Sun. Antics got quite out of hand, pretty typical for an O'Connor wedding, and shall hopefully upload pics tomorrow.

Back at it

10 miles, 66:25

Was happy to get back out there this morning. Foot had improved sufficiently that I felt confident it would stand up to the rigours of a run. In general the run was incident free, although one sharp left turn in particular caused a little discomfort. However, post run the foot felt the same as pre-run, and walking around afterwards the foot felt better than yesterday. Started taking Neurofen, and think there is an anti-inflammatory gel floating around the house here that will be put to use.

My uncle is getting married tomorrow at the grand age of 61. Da is the best man. This should be interesting. In the meantime, Ireland shall hopefully vote Yes to Lisbon, and I'll have a good tempo tomorrow. Back posting Saturday