I have decided that I am not able to enter the MK Marathon this year, or indeed the Marlow Half Marathon that I had booked for the end of March.
I have been plagued with an achilles strain for the last few months and unfortunately this has prevented me from doing any serious running. By now, I should be building up to 20 miles a week of varying intensity - I am no where near that. As the MK marathon is now only 8 weeks or so away, I have run out of time. Over the last 4 months, I have lifted weights, been swimming and biking, so I believe my all round understanding of fitness has improved.
Although the MK marathon was always my end goal, I believe that I have had a reasonable attempt at my objectives. These objectives were never made explicit in this blog, but they may be:
I have been plagued with an achilles strain for the last few months and unfortunately this has prevented me from doing any serious running. By now, I should be building up to 20 miles a week of varying intensity - I am no where near that. As the MK marathon is now only 8 weeks or so away, I have run out of time. Over the last 4 months, I have lifted weights, been swimming and biking, so I believe my all round understanding of fitness has improved.
Although the MK marathon was always my end goal, I believe that I have had a reasonable attempt at my objectives. These objectives were never made explicit in this blog, but they may be:
- Improve my understanding of fitness and how to change my lifestyle to ensure I don't put weight back on
- Build fitness into my daily routine, so it doesn't become a chore, it just becomes something I do to help me reflect on my day to day work
- Enjoy long distance biking, swimming or other activities, otherwise what's the point
My goal hasn't been achieved (for now), but I believe that I have achieved my objectives. There will be other marathons to train for. I aim to continue to learn and improve my understanding of what it takes to complete a marathon. Once this achilles strain improves, I will restart my training and run a marathon.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog!
2 comments:
Very sorry to hear of this difficulty and I can really understand your disappointment. Glad you've got a positive attitude and don't let go of that!
For what it's worth, I have flagged a bit
http://ramblingsofdoug.blogspot.com/2012/02/withdrawal-symptoms.html
You already know cycling is another brilliant way of keeping fit; there are plenty of challenges out there.
With running in mind, are you completely sure you have the right shoes i.e. did you have a gait analysis done when you bought them and are you resting properly in between runs? Those two things could make all the difference.
All the best,
Doug.
Hello Doug, thank you for your comments! I feel the same way as you do in your blog. It's tough to keep going through the winter months, although the glorious sunshine this weekend seemed to give me extra urgency to get back on the road. Spring is here! And, onto that point, I am not going to give up on the marathon just yet. I am going to move my goals down a little as in to 'just get round' rather than as close to a 4 hour time as possible. Although I haven't been running, the cycling and swimming I have been doing over the last few months have enabled me to keep my aerobic fitness in order. I still have a little soreness, but will manage it carefully with runs on 3 days a week. Let's see, if it gets too sore I can always stop - what's the worse that can happen. And it's a lovely day :) Thanks for your support!
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