70 days to go and had to cut my run short this morning (from 16 to 3) due to my right Achilles. Ah nuts. I know it’s only just happened, so I’m probably making it worse than it really is, but damn it if this is a proper injury. I first felt a little something in the Achilles on Monday mornings long run (whatever it was went away). Then last night about 8min into my tempo run it escalated in pain from 0/10 to 7 out of 10 in about 5 steps… almost, as if, out of nowhere. No impact, no funny landing. This morning it just wouldn’t go away. Couldn’t stretch it off, couldn’t run on my toes and get rid of it, couldn’t get rid of the pain even slowing down to a jog. Can feel it walking around.
I guess I need, or at least deserve, the time off so I don’t feel too badly not to run the full 16 this morning. Don’t feel bad missing out a run this afternoon. And I won’t feel bad if I miss out on a run tomorrow morning (although I should go to the gym and put in 60 to 90 minutes on the exercise bike just to keep the engine ticking over and the blood flowing).
Everything is going so well that the risk of getting injured now is worrying me. I’ve gained so much in 100 days of increasingly hard training, and am feeling so strong with the exception of these little niggles, that I’ve got quite a bit to lose by getting injured. Only 70 day to go until London and I need to spend more time, as much time as possible, avoiding injury as well as getting the training done… and done well. Lots of races that are acting as training runs. Lots of track workouts… need to keep my body in good shape through to the tempo when all of the little things will have two weeks to fix themselves. 8 weeks until my taper. 5-6 races. 9 track workouts. 8 long runs. And a smattering of tempo runs on Monday nights. I think, in the interest of avoiding injury I’ll add a rest day and cut back the mileage to 110-120 and stop trying to hit 140 each week. Makes sense? What do I know…?
