Probably shouldn’t have raced on Sunday. The long run (23) on Saturday morning went really well… really ended up pushing hard in the last 6 or 7 miles and felt like it was hard effort too. Then put in a gentle 6 on Saturday afternoon and my right shin was tight and starting to hurt a bit. During a couple of miles worth of warm up on Sunday my shin felt quite painful. Raced, and then the pain came back again during the warmdown. It’s the same old shin pain I’ve had a number of times before, and running higher up on the balls of my feet alleviates the problem. I think it comes from either warm out shoes or too much concrete running. There was enough concrete in the last 7 miles of Saturdays long run for the fatigue to really stress my shins so that must’ve been it.
The race went ok. So-so. I was quite slow, and about a minute slower than I should have been. My body didn’t feel like it wanted to go fast, and I dragged myself around in about 7-10 seconds faster than my marathon pace. I’m happy enough about the 23 long run not to be that bothered about not performing well in the 8k race. I am thinking about putting myself all out in the National Capital Half in two weeks time… take 3 or 4 days and rest beforehand, and really go out to see how well I can do. It’s risky, because If I do badly I’ll get all depressed and worried that all of this work has been useless. But then again, unless I take a risk and go all out, how on earth am I ever going to find out what I could do? “High risk… high reward” or something like that.
It’s getting up to a high of 80something today. Back to freezing first thing in a couple of days time. Silly weather. Went out and did suburban 4 miles from the golds gym without a shirt… I like running in the cold, but it’s nice to be able to run outdoors in just shorts and sweat a little. I’ll be bored of it by august. Easy 10 tonight with Erik. Hopefully shin will be fine after a couple of easy runs. 16 on the trail tomorrow am… probably take it really easy. Might even take my mpthrees with me.
Oh, and really starting to get fed up with my lack of discipline about diet. So… am going to start exercising at lunchtime as well as morning and evenings. Just through to London… but something like 4 miles through suburbia or on the exercise bike or just stretching and light weights. Enough to get my mind off a cookie and a coffee and fire my metabolism up enough to get me through the afternoon. And no more eating what I want. Strict policy of no cookies during the week, no chocolate at all, and no eating after 8pm if I’m just snacking. Get myself down to race weight for London as quickly as possible so I don’t waste all of this effort by going into a race holding onto 5 to 10 lbs worth of hugh that I really don’t need to carry around for 26.2 miles. Maybe I’ll lose 5lbs by the half in two weeks time and then see if 5:30’s suddenly feel really easy for 13 miles? No? Come on, let a boy dream a little.
