Yesterday was my last long run before starting to taper for the marathon. So at just after 9:00am, I set out to run 20 miles, having carefully planned a route the night before on G-maps Pedometer.
My long runs recently have been quite painful from about 13-14miles onwards - my back, knees and hips have started to ache horribly, to the point on the last couple of runs where it's been actually more painful to stop & walk than it has been to keep running! It doesn't make for a happy state of mind, and I think this contributed to my horrible slump in mood and motivation last week (which was relieved by a great night with the Radleys, my very good doctor friends and their respective OHs - thanks guys!). Pain is terribly demoralising, as anyone who has ever suffered with a chronically painful condition will tell you. And I only had to bear it for a few hours - well, until the post-run stiffness sets in, that is!
So, having meant to follow this plan for the past couple of weeks, yesterday morning I actually remembered to take some ibuprofen before I set out on my run.
Sheer Bliiiiissssss.
Apart from usual tired-leg feeling, I felt great all the way round. No achey back, no achey hips, no achey knees. I really wish I'd discovered this earlier in my training...!
What I did discover was a) I'm fine with Lucozade Sport as a drink, which is lucky, being as this is what they are serving up on FLM day (so I thought I'd better give it a test-run), and b) I could do with a gel every 3.5miles or so. I took four out with me, which is all I had as I'd forgotten to buy any more, and it wasn't really quite enough. The new belt I purchased was good, though - much better balanced and fitted than my previous cheapo job.
Unfortunately, having done a very thorough scour of the B-road I had planned to run down using the satellite images on G-maps, ensuring it had a footway all the way along it, I hadn't done the same for the Bromsgrove Feeder road which comprised the last 3-4 miles of my run. So it was knees up and running along uneven grass verge. Which was actually a bonus, as it used muscles I hadn't been using so much in the rest of the run.
I think it took me about 3:45. I say think, because in a spectacularly blonde moment, I stopped my Garmin to cross over a fairly busy road in Bromsgrove, and then forgot to restart it until about a mile or so later when I realised I really had run further than the 13.8 miles that I had apparently run about ten minutes previously. Blast, blast, blast. Oh well.
So, overall, I'm feeling much better and more positive about running a marathon than I was this time last week. Bring it on!
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