London approaching

Well, if you ever want to know how badly you've neglected your blog, when you spend the first minute trying to work out where the button is to create a new post.  Hmm.

It has been twelve weeks or so, basically the core of the marathon training plan since the last update and so where I have been through the highs and lows of struggling through those key sessions and it doesn't feel appropriate to recap in too much detail.  That ship has sailed.  If you are interested you can find them on Garmin Connect (link).  But some summary is required.

In general, the training has been great.  I've managed to stick to the plan fairly rigidly, of the two weekly key sessions, only one of those wasn't hit (due to a blister developing three quarters of the way in and it wasn't worth making it worse), weekly mileage was getting hit with the correct paces and a few weeks into the plan, I felt comfortable enough to increase those paces.  At some point in the future, having put in this training during some of the worst winter weather the UK has had is something I should be please with.  Right now however, I'm rather focused on the fact the London marathon is less than three weeks away and my first serious training issue has decided that this is the moment to appear.

I say serious, it almost certainly isn't.  But with so few days until the race and a taper already weighing heavy on my mind, it feels serious.  Painful cramps in the calves, particular after the most recent long run with pain still lingering a few days later.  I think it's probably shoe related; I've been using a few pairs of shoes during training but the majority of the miles have been in the Mizuno Wave Inspire 8s and during the last month or so, I've been breaking in the new Inspire 9s.  The most recent long run was my first in the new shoes (trying to keep them relatively fresh for the race) and looking back over the last few weeks, the tight calves do seem to correlate to runs in the 9s on tarmac (grass and track don't seem to have flagged anything).  So, it isn't conclusive, but sitting on the sofa with sore calves and seventeen days until the marathon, you can bet I'm not going to be using them again until after my legs have healed a little from VLM.

And of course, I also have a cold.  It doesn't feel serious, not really, but everything aches and the calves ache a little bit more.  So it is a deliberate couple of days away from all of the running shoes to give myself a bit of time to recover before the final push for the day.  Pity, but it is the sensible option.  So I've ordered an array of new running shoes to play with for after London when the summer season and those trail races kick in.  Now I just need to stay away from those chocolate hobnobs.