As the next big race day draws nearer it seems the drama is starting, finally. These last few weeks since the London Marathon have felt like a holiday, felt like I am just running for fun and not getting ready for another lengthy race.

I’ve come to realise that I much prefer running earlier in the day, as early in the morning as possible please. So club run at half seven in the evening has started feeling like a bit of a chore when I could have just run home from work and got a little bit more distant in and, once I am home, it’s done. There is no need to go back out and run three hours later. So leading club run on the 29th will be my last one for a little while. I need to take a break and get some distance from it so I don’t come to hate it. An easy chatty run with Caz was the perfect full stop for now, I’ll be back but I just need a while where I don’t feel tied to anything in case this also spoils how I feel about coaching duties as well. I keep expecting these Monday runs to be hard, they certainly were during the marathon training block, but the time since they have felt much easier mentally. Sure, there is some fatigue from what ever has happened over the weekend but it just feels easier somehow. So for the foreseeable club run will be shelved in favour of running home from work or what ever other session needs to sit in that slot.

Sticking with the after work theme, I planned on taking the 1k intervals that was up next in the plan over to Hyde Park. I’m lucky having that right next to where I spend my weekdays so it would almost be a crime to not use it, and after spending the day in a windowless basement while the weather is glorious outside really is the best medicine. So, joining the other runners and sun worshippers in the east end of the park I jogged out a little warm up to the point I had planned as the start. I’d run repeats here before so knew that I’d be able to get the 1k reps in along the side of the Serpentine without issue. So warm up over, I started the first rep along the wide road shared with walkers, runners, skaters, geese, etc. Each rep ended with a two minute walking rest before turning around and heading back in the other direction. I focused on being tall and maintaining good form for the whole rep and building a progression along them all. Right from the off I felt tired and didn’t think this was going to go to plan at all. Just stay tall and get the efforts in anyway! By the third rep I could tell I was getting slower and thoughts of quitting now were creeping up on me. Half way, just smash one more out and I’m back at the start, I can cool down from there and bin the last two.

I happily take the two minute walking rest, pacing up and down near the lamp post that had become my marker for this session. It went by so quickly and the watch chimed. I didn’t hit the lap button, I didn’t cool down, somehow I was heading back out on rep number five! Well, that was it, if I was doing the out then I would most certainly be doing the back. Focusing on holding a tall form, knowing where my arms were, keeping my shoulders loose, plenty to keep my mind off the discomfort that these efforts can be. Before I knew it I was at the other end with my watch telling me it’s time to rest. I’m here now, one more of those and I’m back at the start and there really is only the cool down left. After this I have all night to rest, no point leaving anything out there. At least get one of these reps faster than the first! So I set off and poured what was left in my tank into this home straight. I could feel it fade close to the end, the last couple of hundred meters felt like my legs had been engulfed in treacle, my lungs beginning to burn, my heart beat was surely visible in my chest. I gladly took the two minute walking rest before the cool down jog back to the office, I’d enjoyed that session even if I’d wanted to quit most of the way through it, just sticking with it and finishing the whole session was worth if, even if it hadn’t gone to plan.

But it had! With each 1k rep I had gotten a little faster, pushed myself a little more. Yes I faded in the last rep but then I was emptying the tank, I’d gauged this run well it seemed. This isn’t the first time I have thought I was falling short when I’m fact I am right where I want to be. I need to trust my ability more. Just maintain the effort and the results will come.

Midweek rolls around and I’m planning possible routes for the weekends trail run, the Saturday Walkers Club web site has a few but those that sit between 30-40 kilometres aren’t that easy to get to, if they are then they seem to be flat along a river of canal and there is a train strike this weekend, it’s going to make everything harder to there and back from. Maybe give All Trails a go later. Right now, this warm Wednesday evening, I had an easy run to complete for which I was going to join the Battersea Park 10k Chase the Sun race. Add a medal to the collection, grab a flapjack and practice my pacing with other runners. For these I start right near the back, let those that want to race it get away as best as possible. This just means I’m picking off runners pretty much the whole race as well as getting passed on this lapped course. I used to get carried away running with others, get caught in their tailwind and dragged along faster than I wanted meaning it wasn’t an easy run and half racing it or blowing up early and having a crappy second half, this time though I managed to keep 8 of the 10 kilometres within nine seconds of each other. Twenty seconds under for the other two where I was held in a group for a wee while and couldn’t overtake. Not too bad at all. 

Running was a real joy right now, was it the weather, the removal of the self imposed pressure of marathon training, having great sessions even when I thought I was failing at the time, being pain and niggle free? Maybe the combination of all of these. Having some new running toys waiting for me at home couldn’t hurt either!

I have vague recollections from my earlier non-running life of being told that running was a really cheap sport to do. All lies! Especially if you fall down the rabbit hole like I have. I’d just spent £175 on a lightweight waterproof jacket to carry with me on long races and only wear in emergencies. Now I had a head torch that’s was over £100 and some trail running poles for another £185 waiting to be opened at home. Add to this the shoes, toe socks, calf compression, special underwear, shorts, running belt, tee shirt, arm warmers, gloves, running vest, sunglasses, hat and a selection of buffs and it was adding up. Throw in a first aid kit, emergency warm top, foil blanket, soft flasks, anti-chaffing stick, nutrition for a days running, train tickets, hotel room and a race entry fee of £195 and I’m probably still not listing all the stuff. This rabbit hole is deep!

Thursday I took a walk into work and back, nothing strenuous, just making the most of this great weather we are having at the moment and getting some more time on feet rather than my usual more sedentary day. Strength training that evening was very lack lustre, I really struggle to get into that work a lot of the time. I can’t even put my finger on why, I know what benefits it has and that improvements are measured in tiny increments but there is something so off putting, something I have to push against to get going on it. The polar opposite of running where I have days I really don’t want to be out there and then somehow find myself in my kit and working my way through a session almost unconsciously. If I were to liken it to something then it would be like the dread a beach holiday instills in me, laying there doing nothing. Just so alien to me. Perhaps I am still a little way off building that habit.

The weekend was close now and I’d settled on a route I’d found around Cassiobury that was hilly and 30k in length. That should fill the planned three hours of trail running that was in the plan and started and finished at the Metropolitan Line station in Watford so it avoided any trouble with the train strikes of the weekend. With that plan locked in I had something to look forward to. The forecast was for sun all day, it will be a great day out in the countryside. This would be a full dress rehearsal, now I had my new poles and head torches I was pretty much done for everything I’d need to carry on the day, just needed a new running belt with pole loops on Saturday and I was all set.

Parkrun first. Today was a 5k tempo and originally it was going to be in Regents Park on another Runthrough race but that didn’t mesh with the rest of the day. There was a corgi that needed a bit of looking after in the morning, a trip to Decathalon for the new belt and then an eye exam in the afternoon to look into lazer surgery. So at 9am I was once again stood in Gunnersbury Park to run my 15th Parkrun. I wanted negative splits again, so starting towards the rear of the pack I built slowly through the other runners sticking as much as possible to the grass or “off road” parts of the route next to the path, keeping it trail. I had a great little run, the sun came out as the race was finishing and I managed the negative splits up until the long low hill towards the finish where I faded a little. My fastest time on the course this year, so something went right. Time to go shopping and then do some flat lays and sort the stuff I would be carrying tomorrow. 

Later in the afternoon I headed off for my eye exam in Shepards Bush. This is the first time I recall feeling the discomfort in my left foot. I pulled my sock up as it felt like it had come down and was bunched up just past the heel inside my Converse All Stars. It didn’t help. I went home and sorted out the gear for the morning into little plies in the order I’d be putting it on, filling it up or tucking it away in the pack or belt so I wouldn’t forget anything. 

Once again a 4am alarm roused me on a Sunday morning. I rolled over, cancelled the alarm, threw back the covers and swung my legs out of bed. As soon as I stood up if felt like I’d stepped on Lego! Pain shot through the soft part of my right foot. I hobbled into the bathroom and back, hobbled to the kitchen and made coffee, hobbled back to the bathroom once the caffeine had worked its magic and showered. There was no improvement in the foot at all. I was limping with every step, there was no way I was going to be able to get round 30k out in the countryside somewhere. Defeated I laid back on the bed and fell asleep. When I awoke later it was exactly the same.

During the good times, when nothing hurts (too much) and I’m not ill I will tell myself that if and when I am injured or sick I will just run through it, shake it off, I’m tougher than that and I’ll push through to the other side. When it actually strikes and every time you put weight on your foot it causes discomfort, involuntary limping and a change in you normal mechanics to a point other stuff starts to feel it, that’s a different matter entirely. I didn’t know what this was. It didn’t feel like plantar fasciitis that I have had in the past. Stretching didn’t feel like it was touching it, the pain was constant and didn’t fade with use during the day like the PF I’d had before. Was the bottom of my foot swollen? Hard to tell examining it, was it just confirmation bias that was making me imagine this? It certainly felt swollen, like there was a lump between the mid foot and heel that I rocked over with every step. Resigned to not getting my long run and dress rehearsal in today I started planning when I can get it done. There is only one weekend left between now and the race, next Sunday was my only option, I’d need to check with Jenny about the length as it was meant to be shorter. Let’s see how it feels on the run home from work tomorrow.

Monday morning bought with it pain. It wasn’t as bad right? I had my coffee and worked through two of the three S’s before packing my bag with the Vapourflys and the rest of my running kit. The discomfort was stable throughout the day. It didn’t get better but it also showed no improvement. By the time it came time to run home I knew I wouldn’t be running home today. It was so frustrating! Everything else felt great, it should do given the rest this had imposed, I should be running and made no sense not being able to because of such a small issue. Still, it was hills tomorrow, I’ve been enjoying doing them again, I’d be fine for that. I wasn’t.

While one side of my mind was firmly stuck in positive, this’ll all be over soon, it’s only temporary, tomorrows session will be fine, you’re not going to miss any more. The other side was in the shadow cast by the pain, this feels like it’ll go on for a while, ah the “summer injury” let’s have seven weeks off, how late can I leave it before I can no longer defer the race, I should certainly look that up just in case. Walking the tightrope between these two sides is tiring, trying to keep the head above water mentally when the constant discomfort is trying to pull you down all the time.

Tuesday started the same way, was the pain less? Hard to tell. It was still there but on a scale of 1-10 it might have dropped 0.5, too small a difference to be sure. Hills were not going to happen that night. So I headed for the gym to do some work on the rowing machine. I was already mentally defeated though so hated the session I did manage but it felt ineffectual and I resigned myself to have just wasted my time there. There was a difference Wednesday, sure it was still painful putting pressure on my left foot but the limp was almost gone. Did it hurt less or had I just grown used to it? At this point I am taking this as a win, I finished the day certain I would be hitting the trails on Sunday and smashing out the dress rehearsal long run, it was now a consideration of what I could squeeze in from the plan before that date and what the week after looked like to make sure I was still in a decent condition for the race.

Wednesday was also when I got the email from the New York Road Runners with the link to register for the marathon. Details complete and survey filled out and the registration confirmation came through. That’s it, just the bus to the start to register for, everything else is sorted. Flights, nine nights in the city, the ESTA and the event itself. Been a few years now since I was in the city, so looking forward to getting to explore it all over again.

I was sure now that the foot was getting better, I’d tried different shoes, my Minimus gym shoes, ole retired running shoes, the converse boots. All felt the same. I was certain now that the pain was less, by Friday I began to notice I had stopped limping. I was resolved that Sunday would be the dress rehearsal I had planned for last week. So Saturday I opted not to do the hour progression run that was in the plan and instead went out for a few final bits for the next two weekends. I got all of my kit laid out again, checking it off, packed it into dry bags or the pouches of the vest and set them aside for the next day. Looks like it’s going to be a hot one!

So, here I sit on the Metropolitan Line heading out to Watford on Sunday finishing off this blog. There is still a pain in the foot but it is a distant, dull, pain. Not the sharp, halting pain that was before. I have a combination of paracetamol and aspirin if I need them and I’m fully packed. I have a bit more than the mandatory kit with me but then there are some items missing, like the extra sticks of Tailwind, that I will need on the day. The forecast is for 28 degrees today so it’s going to be hot. I’m carrying an extra 500ml of water to what I usually have because that is mandated in the race notes and I can fully see why now. A day like today is going to need it. 

It’s make or break today, I have to focus and make sure that, if the pain continues, I can manage it for the longer distance. I risk making it worse again, maybe the right choice would be to not run again and continue to work on getting rid of it. There would be doubt then, and unknown going into the race, I’d always be looking for it and a slightest hint would have me overthinking it on the day. For me the right choice is to go out and get this done, wish me luck.