Marina's Bloggariffic

As you remember, about week ago I was supposed to do 27 km for my long distance run for my marathon training. However, I couldn’t complete it due to the sudden pain in my left soleus.

So I went the doctor’s for a specialist consultation and an ecograph scan on my leg.

I don’t enjoy spending a large amount of money, and am now 100 euro poorer, which is completely messing up my 52 week money challenge. It would probably be cheaper if I went to a public one, but for the fact that getting an appointment would take months. Nevertheless, it’s a peace of mind to be told that there wasn’t anything serious and that I can start again running soon.

And so, I haven’t been jogging at all for week 12. I’ve just been taking it easy instead, doing  short walks. Thankfully, my legs feel much better now and walking up and down the stairs for example, doesn’t seem to be a big chore any more.

To be honest though, I feel so envious whenever I pass by someone running, and at times I feel jittery as it does not feel right, to not do something that I’ve been in a habit doing for the past two months or so.

I think the experience in week 11 has taught me that cutting back once in a while, important for the body to heal and recover. And now with this knowledge, if somehow I could go back in time, I would tweak my timetable much differently.

In my defence though, the table that I obtained is from the same site where I trained for my Roma Ostia half marathon last year, and it seemed to fit me well so I thought that I would use the same site for the their full marathon suggestion.

In the end, each athlete is different. What might work for them, might not work for another. Nevertheless. I’m going to take this as a positive learning experience. After all, it’s my first marathon and I’ve a lot to learn, so I really don’t mind any critiques or suggestions and advice. 🙂

I guess at this point of time, I’d have to change my plan of action. While all the while my philosophy in doing races is to not be the last, I don’t think there should be any shame in to just want to complete the marathon.

According to the rule though, it is mandatory to do it in 7 hours. If I use the run and walk technique, that should be doable right? After all this guy did a marathon with hardly any training at all.

Hmm. #rinazdoes42km?

I was supposed to do 27 km yesterday for my long distance run. After going successfully at 26 km the past two weekends, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

So I ran my usual path around Eur. Depending on where you go, going around this route would give you a good 15 – 20 km. I like going around this area as it’s normally not that many people around and there is a lake there which makes you feel tranquil as you go past fellow joggers.

Unlike the previous weeks since starting on my training, this time round it was full of people celebrating the carnevale – you’d see lots of young children wearing costumes, accompanied with their parents. There were so many of them and it started to get bothersome, especially with the number of kids scampering around, not looking where they were going.

Thinking quickly, I made a detour to the church nearby where the road was practically empty apart from the lone jogger or two.

Despite my feet feeling their usual pins and needles, I was feeling good. Moreover seeing that I was on a slow but steady pace made me feel extremely motivated. I even had an inner conversation with myself :

“Marina! You just did 10 km! Lets do another 10 km!”

“Oh wow! You just hit 20 km! Just 7 km more! You can do it!

As tired as I was, I was feeling really proud of myself especially when I think back about my half marathon training. But as soon as I hit 23 km, I suddenly felt a strong muscle pull in my soleus. Huh? Why?

It was so painful that I just couldn’t continue any more and had leave my goal premature. I even felt the sprain while hobbling to the main road where luckily Cart happened to be waiting nearby in his car and convinced me to stop and drove us home.

I felt so disappointed. It was only 4 km more. I was doing so good. Why is my body rebelling?

As soon as we reached home, I couldn’t even do my after running stretches. It was too uncomfortable. And all throughout the evening, I felt like an invalid – I couldn’t walk around without needing support. Not fun at all!

So all I could do was to try to ease the pain by puting an ice pack around my calf and then use a muscle rub some hours after that and went to bed with my compression socks on.

At this point of writing, my leg is feeling much better and I can walk properly now, although the pulled feeling is still there but I think it will ease completely within the day.

Nevertheless, this experience is rather disconcerting and Cart and I were hypothesising about what I did differently this time round :

• I didn’t wear my compression socks while running.
• I tried to go catch up at the traffic light by going slightly faster rather than running on the spot.

While I’m not that convinced that these changes made that much difference, now that I’m so deep in my training, I don’t want to take any more risks and instead I’ll take it as a learning experience.

Rather than feeling demoralised, all the more I feel like this is a challenge that I need to overcome. We’ve come so far and I really want to fight for this!

Sidenote : My next long run seems to coincide with a Duathlon event and it seems that part of their path is my usual jogging route. This could be a good thing. If they don’t block it off to non competitors, I could use it to my advantage. On the other hand, Cart can’t drive here in case something happens. We’ll see.

It’s now 10 weeks since I first started on my #rinazdoes42km training, and already I see changes in myself but I’m not entirely convinced that it’s for the best.

1.  My pace has slowed down significantly

I used to be able to run around 7 minutes a kilometre, sometimes even faster than that. Nowadays however, I’d be lucky if I could go at a constant 8 minutes. I’m so slow! I can’t even sprint any more. And it can get quite demoralising.

On the other hand, my stamina has increased dramatically. True, I take a longer time to run now, but I am always amazed each week through my training that I have the strength go the distance. And true, it’s not easy – I still feel pins and needles at the sole of my feet after each long run. But I am surprised at how I still feel fine. I expected that my heart would pound madly, and I’d wheezing for air and be crying from all the pain.

Every morning when I wake up the next day, I am surprised that I’m still alive. I guess that gives me a little bit of courage that I can still carry on with my training.

2. I found out that I’ve lost the ability to jump

As I’m training with minimalist shoes, it’s important to strengthen the calves and ankles and one recommended way of doing that is by doing jump rope.

Nowadays however, as hard as I try, I am unable to launch myself off the floor. Which is a disconcerting feeling, as I used to be good at zeropoint. But it seems that it’s common for long distance runners to lose this ability as their muscles adapt to endure long distance running.

Nope. I can’t do this any more. 

I never really thought about it before, but I think jumping is an important ability to have in daily life. Sometimes you need that burst of energy to avoid danger like fast passing cars, or unfriendly dogs, which is common where I am. Thus, I’d hate to completely lose this useful ability.

One the other hand :

3. I feel physically stronger

There are days when I feel like I’m running out of steam when I jog. And I’d be complaining that I feel tired, or moan about having pins and needles on my feet after a long run. Interestingly though, my recuperation time seems to be faster and by the next day I’m usually almost back to normal.

I guess I don’t need Wolverine’s healing ability. For now at least 😛

Physically I think I look pretty much the same. It’s not like I suddenly developed a six pack past these 10 weeks, nor does anything impressive happens when I flex my arm. My weight has been pretty much the same too since the beginning of the training.

However, I can see that my calf muscles look more developed now. And my glutes look much firmer thanks to the exercises that I do. I can even twerk my jelly! (No. I will not show you) Although, I doubt I will ever be as good as this lady.

So for the past two weekends, I had to do 26 km, which is quite a significant jump from 22 km, so it’s quite daunting to me. Prior to that, I was talking to Cart about it :

Cart : How many kilometres do you have to do this Sunday?

Me : 26 kms.

Cart : Oh! You are so brave.

Me : No! I am not! In fact, I’m so scared! That’s why I really wish that you’d accompany me in case something happens to me.

Cart would usually decline, saying that he has a hernia issue which he doesn’t want to aggravate. To my surprise he finally agreed to accompany me in my long run. But its not like how you think :

He didn’t run with me, because of obvious back issues. Not with a bicycle either, as he doesn’t want to risk falling off. Not even with a motorcycle, for the same reason as the previous.

He accompanied me with a car!?

I … I have no words. On the other hand, with Cart accompanying me, I feel a morale boost in knowing that I can count on him in case something bad happens to me. And I feel very appreciative that he supports me in my time of need.

I’m still feeling motivated, and surprisingly still feel good. I’ve run 334 km in total so far since starting on my training and it’s just 3 more long runs before tapering and then just a short 2 more weeks before the actual #rinazdoes42km!

I think I just might be able to do this!