And it was all going so well….

On the whole, bar a few mishaps and a period of illness my running in the last quarter of 2017 had been going well and I was pleased with the progress I was making…..

I’m a creature of habit when it comes to my running… the night before a long run I always eat chicken, sweet potato and broccoli and try to drink lots of water. The morning of my long runs, usually on a Sunday, I get up at 6am, (it’s fair to say my other half isn’t a fan of this routine) and have a coffee and eat porridge. I then get back into bed for an hour, before getting ready for the club run at 8am. On 31.12.17 it appears I switched off my alarm and woke at 7.40am, barely enough time to get ready and definitely not enough time for me to eat given I’m prone to stitches if I eat too close to running. So my last run of 2017 on the morning of New Year’s Eve was 13.6 miles, I owe running this completely to my Hook Runners buddies who sang me round the last 6 miles after my quads went into protest because I’d missed breakfast – a stark reminder that without all pieces of my pre-long run prep in place I really am pretty useless at running.

The first week of January 2018 and week 3 of my training plan was going well, although I was conscious that my legs were tired and desperately calling out for the massage booked on 08.01.18, I managed to get my first two runs of the week done without much issue. On 07.01.18, I had mapped a 15 mile route, with various cut offs as one of the options available for the Sunday morning club runs. I woke up on time (hurrah) and as my other half has succumbed to early Sunday morning runs being a weekly occurrence again, I made two bowls of porridge. There was a big turnout for the run with at least 8 deciding to do the full 15 miles. It was a great run, one I was trying to take a bit easy as I’d woken up with a tight right calf which I’d managed to ease off before we left home. Unfortunately as we hit the bottom of a hill at about 11.5 miles, my right calf went into spasm and it felt like my muscle had been replaced by steel. Our clubs ethos is ‘we never leave a runner behind’ but with just under 4 miles still to go, I managed to convince the others to carry on while I took some time to stretch. Unfortunately, no amount of stretching was easing it off and I was getting colder by the minute and three steps to a walking jog, I felt the ‘I’ve been shot in the leg’ ping that comes with a muscle tear. Marathon training was not going according to plan……