The week in review

This week was a reduced mileage week, which was a Good Thing as I was way too busy with work stuff to have been able to manage much more.  Here is what I got up to:

Monday:  A visit to the gym for an upper body work-out, followed by an appointment with Adam to sort out any niggles from the previous day's 17 mile run.  Except there weren't any niggles.  Aside from some to-be-expected tightness in my hamstrings and calves, my legs were fine.  We were both impressed.  We also had a chat about my strategy for the upcoming Inverness Half that went something like this:

Adam:  You have 3 choices for how to run this.  I'm not going to tell you what they are.  Think it through - which one do you think fits best with your reason for doing the half? 
Me:  I want to beat the time that I did for the Aviemore Half. 
Adam:  (big silence followed by big sigh)  Okay, you have four choices...

We agreed that I would try to run the half at what I'm aiming for my marathon race pace to be.  Consistent AND faster than the AHM - everyone will be happy.

Tuesday:  5 miles easy run before work.  My easy run pace is getting faster, which worries me a bit as I fear that I'm going to stress out calves that have been quite happy at a slower pace.  I tried to keep it to the pace set by my training programme, but failed.  Curse you, happy legs!

Wednesday:  Work work work.  Blah blah blah. 

iPod dressed for winter

Thursday:  6 miles easy run before work.  Again, I settled in to the new easy run pace (which is somewhere between 11:00 and 11:15 minute miles).  My legs were happy with this.  It was so cold though that my iPod stopped working which left me with only my own thoughts for company.  Yawn.

Friday:  For the first time in weeks, I had a niggle!  I knew that something was wrong before I even got out of bed; the back of my knee was sore and stiff and, when I put weight on it, it was even more sore.  This, however, was not a running related injury.  This is what happens to me either when I try to kick backwards in bed to give a snoring Bassman a shove to stop the snoring or when I use that leg to lift the two duvets, one heavy blanket, and three sleeping cats off me during a hot flush.  I suspect that it was the latter that did me in this time.  I limped off to the gym to do my leg exercises; obviously I should be doing more of them to avoid pulling a muscle in bed-related activities. 

I would have liked to have worn my compression leggings the rest of the day and to have iced my knee, but I had a chiropodist appointment (calluses taken care of, blister advice consisting of 'most runners get them' - not the most helpful of attitudes) and the car was in for its MOT (which meant that I spent three hours wandering around the shops in Inverness, although I did break that up with a lovely lunch of falafel salad, olives, hummus, and guacamole.  And some carrot cake.).  Still, I did RICE when I got home.

Today:  6 miles easy run.  The back of my knee felt fine, as did the slightly faster pace.  And I was thrilled when, in the last mile, something clicked (no, not my knee) and I suddenly shifted from a slight heel strike to a proper mid-foot strike.  This happens occasionally and I still don't know what I do to make it happen.  What I do know, however, is that I also suddenly felt like I was running without effort.  If only this would happen on race day...

Eight weeks to go.