Summer in the city

Day:         110

Distance: 7.43km/4.62 miles

Time:       36:56 secs

Calories:  623

It's a beautifully sunny end to the week. It's only April but the last few days have felt decidedly summery. After months of running through snow, wind, rain and plunging temperatures this feels like a nice reward.

With the sunlight streaming in through the bedroom curtains I have no difficulty waking up early to prepare for this run into work. I actually have to get up earlier now than I was a couple of weeks ago as I need to fit in the various stretches that the physio's given me. The stretches for the Iliotibial band on my left leg seem to have  sorted out the problem that I had a couple of weeks back, so I'm more than happy to get up that little bit earlier to do them.

When I first started running into work a couple of years back this run would take anything up to 45 minutes. I've not done it in a little while, so I was more than a little surprised to get to the end of it and find I'd done it in the time recorded above. I think it shows the progress that I've made as I've chipped away at the marathon training over the last few months.

Without even trying I ran this 7.5km route at a really decent pace. Run Keeper has recorded it at 8 mins/km on average. That's considerably faster than I need to go in order to complete the marathon in 3:40 mins. In fact, averaging that pace would give a finish time of around 3.5 hours. Granted, the marathon is around 22 miles longer than this route but after Wednesday's 32 minute run left me knackered and out of breath I'm looking for all the positives I can find.

Talking of positives and thinking again about the sunny weather I found myself thinking about a band called Symposium for probably the first time in 10 years. There's no reason why you should be aware of this bunch of 'erberts from Shepherds Bush, but back in the late '90s I quite enjoyed their punk pop offerings. I seem to remember the NME wetting themselves over their early singles - not that that's any kind of guide to quality (yep, I still remember them labelling Andrew WK "the saviour of music"). 

Anyway, the song that I was thinking of in particular was called "Drink the sunshine". The wonderful title seemed very appropriate, but when I listened to the song earlier today I was struck by how ordinary it was. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, clearly. Luckily, Symposium did have other upbeat, sunny numbers up their sleeves so I'm pleased to recommend "Farewell to twilight" instead. Let's hope the sunshine continues!

Father I have sinned ...

Day:         108

Distance: 6.29km/3.91 miles

Time:       33:20 secs

Calories:  517

It's been four days since my last run. I am now officially in the 'tapering' period of my marathon training, so I am supposed to be easing off but that's ridiculous. 

Turning 30 hasn't helped matters, not because I've spent the last few days weeping for my lost youth (although I have been doing plenty of that), but because celebrations have rather got in the way of marathon training. On Saturday me and my mate Landy waved goodbye to our 20s with our last ever birthday pub crawl - the suitably messy Zombie pub crawl through London. The crawl started at midday and took us through South London and into the West End via 14 taverns and ale houses. As ever, our mates made a phenomenal effort on the dressing up front so I wanted to share this photo with you.

Night of the Living Dead London style.

After a 12 hour session (and all the extra time taken to scrub off facepaint and peel off latex skin) there was no chance that I'd be running on the Sunday. The fact that I was flying to Austria in the afternoon also meant that there'd be no run on either Monday or Tuesday, so actually this run on Wednesday morning (4 days after the last run) was really the best I could do. Honest guv.

When I did finally set out for a run the mind was willing but my withered 30 year old body was less than able. I intended to go out for 45 minutes, but felt so shattered after 25 minutes that I decided to cut the run short and head for home. I arrived home covered in sweat and out of breath. A 32 minute run really shouldn't be causing me this many problems this far into my marathon training. Worrying.

The Acid Test

Day:         104

Distance: 21.59km/13.42 miles

Time:       1:53:07 secs

Calories:  1,883

It's now a week since I hurt my knee. In that time I've been to the physio, been reassured by the physio, done my stretches and been out on three increasingly long runs. Everything up until this point has gone well, but the real test is undertaking a long run. When I've had problems with my knee it seemed to occur at or around the 10 mile mark, so a 13 mile run should give a good indication of whether or not I'm going to be able to run the London Marathon on April 17th.

Well, I won't hold you in suspense.

The run went really well, there was no pain or discomfort in my left knee* and I also managed a decent pace of 8:26 mins/mile. That's a tiny bit slower than what I would need to run to achieve my goal of 3:30 mins, but I'm just so relieved that these 13 miles passed off uneventfully that I'm not going to beat myself up over my pace.

Over the course of the last week I've gone from the lowest point in my marathon training to one of the many high points I've experienced over the last 104 days and, so, to celebrate I thought I'd share another song from the running playlist. Every time this song comes on it puts a smile on my face and some more fuel in my muscles. It also seems to suit the beautiful weather that we're enjoying in London at the moment. I couldn't find a great video for the song, but it doesn't matter when the material's as good as this.

* It should be noted that there was some pain in my right knee though. I don't know if this is because I've been over-compensating on the left side or not (or maybe it's just old age), but I've started doing the physio's stretches on that side as well.

First run of the thirties

Day:         102

Distance: 10.86km/6.75 miles

Time:       57.42 secs

Calories:  899

It's been a busy old week since I last posted. In that time I've turned 30, drunk far too much and been on a very brief work trip to Vienna. Hence, I'm only now writing up a run from last Wednesday (as I write this it's the following Tuesday).

As you may have read, I hurt my knee the week before and I was seriously worried that it would affect my ability to run the London Marathon, so I took tentative steps over the week. This was the third run of the week and as I hadn't had any problems on the two previous runs I wanted to test my knee out by running further and for longer. 

As with the two previous runs I'm pleased to report that I didn't experience any problems with my left knee. In addition, Run Keeper shows that my average pace was 5.19 mins/km, which is a fairly normal pace for me - so I could feel the confidence which I'd lost in the previous week beginning to return.

Last run of the roaring twenties

Day:         100

Distance: 8.19km/5.09 miles

Time:       43:54 secs

Calories:  684

And so it happens that on the 100th day of my marathon training I hit another landmark - the last run of my twenties. It's fair to say that I'm happier to reach one of these milestones more than the other.

Anyway, after the problems with my knee last week this was another gentle run out. I found myself concentrating less on my knee than I had done in the previous run and I could feel myself regaining some of the confidence that I lost last week, but as I said before I'm not really going to know the lie of the land until I tackle the 15 miles I have planned for Saturday. 

I've just been compiling some stats and since I started my training I've been out on 59 separate runs, covered 669 km (416 miles) and run for more than 62 hours. Fingers crossed my knee be all right and the last 100 days won't have been in vain. 

Tentative steps

Day:         99

Distance: 5.6km

Time:       36:36 secs

Calories:  475

I've been following the physio's advice and doing my stretches three times a day for the last few days, but even so as I step outside for my first run since Friday I feel nervous. Up until 6:30am last Friday I'd felt so confident, but that assurance is gone now and will take some time to build up again.

I'm only planning on taking it steady because I want to see how my knee feels but for the first 15 minutes I'm paying attention to every single foot fall and trying to work out if my left knee hurts. There are a couple of times when I think my knee's hurting, but I wonder if this is just because I'm focused on that joint and that joint alone.

I reach the end of the run with no apparent ill effects and I feel like I could go on quite easily but I stop because tonight is just about testing to make sure everything's in working order. I'll increase the time and distance of my runs over the course of this week, but this close to the marathon I'm not prepared to risk it all just because I think I should be doing more. 

Any relief at how well this run went is tempered somewhat by what happened last week. I'd had trouble with my knee after the half marathon, but was fine when I did an hour long run during the week. The pain I experienced on Friday occurred some 11 miles into what should have been a much longer run, so I really don't think tonight's run is enough to build confidence. I'm only going to know how things are after I get a long run under my belt at the weekend.

It ended on the number 12 bus

Day:         96
Distance: 20.28km/12.60 miles

Time:       1:47:19 secs

Calories:  1,552

It's sunny, it's Friday and it's pay day. The Holy Trinity, you might think. Alas, not today.

And to think it started so well. I got up at 4:30am, as planned, with the intention of doing my last long run. I thought it would be difficult getting up at this time, but as soon as the alarm went off I sprang into action. I was looking forward to this run. I was following the same route as the one I ran two weeks ago and I wanted to beat the time that I'd recorded first time round. All was going really well for the first 10 miles.

I had done South London, run through the East end, up into North London and had passed through the West End but while running down the Mall I started to feel some pain in my left knee. I carried on running, but the pain only increased as I ran down Whitehall and past the Houses of Parliament. The pain was unbearable by the time I got to the little park next to Parliament and for the first time in my training I had to stop and walk. I'm pretty stubborn and very determined to do well in the marathon, but I know when enough's enough.

I must have cut a particularly forlorn figure as I walked through the park and over Lambeth Bridge. I tried a little light running a couple of times, but both times the pain (which wasn't apparent when walking) came straight back.

What should have been my triumphant final long run ended in utter defeat aboard the number 12 bus heading home. I felt like crying. All that time, effort and energy I'd committed. More than 13 weeks of training. The money that people had donated. It all looked like it would amount to nothing. How was that fair?

I had thought that this blog post would end in the previous paragraph, but I'm pleased and very, very relieved to say that there is a silver lining to this story. After putting out a self-pitying status update on Facebook I was overwhelmed by the sympathy and physio suggestions I received from a good number of friends. Finally, a useful role for social media.

My mate Jim - who you may remember from earlier blog posts - recommended a place on Chancery Lane called Central Health as he had been there recently when he injured his knee while training for a half marathon. Luckily, I was able to get a lunchtime appointment on Friday and having been to them now I'm also very happy to recommend them to anyone living or working in London who's in need of a physio. I went in at midday feeling pretty despondent and came out at 1pm feeling much more positive.

After putting me through my paces with various tasks such as walking, squatting, hopping, running on a treadmill and a number of stretches the physio told me that I hadn't damaged my knee. I could have kissed her.

It turns out that the Ilotibial band in my left leg is tighter than the one in my right and this was putting added strain on that knee, so all the stretches I've been told to do are to loosen up the muscles in my left leg.

The Ilotibial band. Nope, I'd never heard of it either.

The physio also taped up my left knee to try and correct the position of the knee cap. The upshot of all this is that I need to rest for a couple of days (which is fine as the planned boozy weekend didn't allow for much running anyway) and do the new stretches three times a day and then I should be fine to do some light running on Sunday or Monday. We'll see how it goes, but that news certainly helped to brighten a day which had looked a lot bleaker just an hour before.