Distance: 32 miles
Time: 4 hours 7 minutes
Comments: After a rough mid-week struggle with the debilitating pain in my left calf, I was able to put in a surprisingly decent performance in the half-marathon to finish the week up strong.
I am glad I went ahead and did the race - the experience was very valuable and the psychological boost was a huge improvement on my recent lassitude and anxiety.
But the concerns I expressed at the start of the week are still very valid. The effort will clearly take a bit of the next week to recover from and further shortens the window I have for putting in the long miles needed to prepare for the marathon.
The next few weeks are going to be a real test of the effort I have put in over the past year. I am already running distances and speeds that I have never done before but now things get really intense. I hope I haven't overplayed my hand by the effort this week.
Just six weeks to go. A month and a half. Too long to seem realistically at hand and much to close in terms of the amount of work left to be done.
The plan this week was to use the build-up of last week to pour on the miles. The calf issue and the last-minute decision to run the half-marathon have altered that situation somewhat.
I will still try and get the 18-mile long run in or some distance in that ballpark. The difference will come in the weekly mileage where I'll probably take it easy with four and six-milers on alternating days.
Obviously, I'll be rather paranoid about the possibility of injury, so reserving the right to abandon ship on any given workout and the week itself remains a real possibility.
With luck, a slow pace and a new pair of shoes I should get through it alright.
Injury update: That damned calf problem. It was relatively sedate during the race and that is good. But it was still very definitely there. And that is not good at all.
Following my post-race ice bath (just as glorious an experience as always) the situation was better and the heat cream seemed to help some as well.
I have a massage appointment for Monday and I will go get another pair of shoes this week that return me to the land of motion-stability.