China Marathon Week Two

Great Wall of China Marathon blog : Week Two

Moving into week two I was hoping things would start to get a bit easier and I’d be back into the swing of things with the training load. However this week was a bit of mixed bag of tricks with a few up and downs.

I was completely thrown off at the beginning of the week with the clocks going back at the weekend. I set my alarm to get up early to run before work. (I’ve always been more of an early bird trainer than a night owl) BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO why is it so dark? Why am I running in the dark again? Although it’s the same time I have been running the last few weeks, mentally it just feels so much harder to pull yourself out of bed when it looks so dark and cold again. I feel like I’ve been spoilt the last few weeks with the lighter mornings and watching some amazing sun rises. Oh well back to putting on the high Vis again, I can’t give in that easily.

So not only was it dark again but the wind from the weekend was definitely blowing into this week to. I usually run in quite open space so there was no escaping it. Tuesday’s session of interval threshold runs was really tough. At one point I was running downhill and trying to push pretty hard, but the wind was so strong I was sure I was running on the spot. How can this be? This should be the easy bit! I could really feel my legs had worked hard after that session. Wednesday’s session was marginally better but still pretty windy. Although slightly easier as it was a tempo run so all I needed to concentrate on was keeping my pace steady. A least the sun was out so just a bit nippy in temperature. I can’t wait for some nicer spring weather so I can get my shorts on again.

I feel like I was better prepared for my strength session this week. I took it slower and really focused on the form of my exercises. I concentrated a lot on single leg exercises as I know I have a bit of a weakness around my pelvis. I really need to work on my glut muscles (bottom muscles – nobody wants a flat, saggy bottom) to keep me stable and supported when I run. I also managed to fit in some dynamic core work as well. The stronger your core is when you run the more stable you will be which means less movement and less wastage of energy. However I woke up the next morning and my abs and glutes were really sore but as one of my old patients an Olympic athlete once told me “If you’re training and it ain’t hurting, you ain’t working hard enough!”

Good Friday morning I was up at 7am putting my trainers on getting ready to run. Asking myself once again WHY? After having two glasses of wine the night before (it is bank holiday after all) and feeling a bit groggy, my head is telling me ‘go back to bed and have a lie in’. Reluctantly I push myself out the door and as soon as I get running I just have this moment of clarity. It’s early and no-one is around, the sun is coming up and it’s really peaceful. It’s times like this that remind me why I’m doing this. Running is my down time, it helps me relax and clear my head. After really dreading the run I suddenly feel great. A brilliant way to start the day. Also getting up early is all for a good reason, I’m going to the spa today! Yay!

My mum and I took ourselves off to the spa for a day of relaxation and pampering. We indulged in the hot tub, sauna, steam room and heated water beds. I got a massage and it was amazing. I didn’t realise how tight my back was and the amount of knots I had in my shoulders. I think training for almost 20 weeks with only a week’s break has started to take its toll on my body.  Seeing as I massage other people for a living I should really take care of my body a bit better. I think maybe I need to make this a more regular occurrence to help supplement my training. My sister also got me a pedicure voucher basically telling me in her own words “sort my trotters out.” So seeing as I was having a bit of a pamper session I thought why not? I couldn’t apologise enough to the poor girl who had to touch my feet. Even my blisters had blisters. She was very nice and said she had seen worse (not sure about that.) She was brilliant though and my feet felt refreshed and ready to go again.

This week’s long run was 16 miles. So I took myself back to Richmond Park to tackle those hills again. I must admit although I had an uneasy start to the week, after my indulgent pamper session I felt really rested and revitalised. The weather wasn’t great again, not as windy this time and a bit rainy. However I felt like I had a lease of new energy that kept me pushing up those mega hills. I decided to take some high carbohydrate gels (liquid gold) with me this time aswell which really helped when I felt like I was getting fatigued. I finished the 16 miles tired but nowhere near as fatigued and sore as last week. I think I found my motivation and love for running again. Bring on next week!