"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them"

Ososlo wrote: »

You're really flying it at the moment. Very excited to see how London goes for you. Hope we can track you on the day!
Great run tonight considering you weren't really feeling it earlier in the day!

Looks like that may be possible alright;

(From Facebook Page--Thanks to Robinph)

"On Race Day – Sunday 13 April – the front page of the Virgin Money London Marathon website will feature a button that allows you track a runner at every 5km point on the course.

All you need to do is click the track-a-runner button, enter the runner’s surname to find your runner, and then at every 5kms and at the halfway point, you will be able to see their elapsed time since they crossed the start line.

So whether you want to track your runner so you can spot them on Race Day, or you’ll be supporting them from the sofa, use this handy tracking service to follow their progress.

Remember this feature will only go live on the website on Race Day!"

Wednesday 2nd April

Plan said 10 miles w/8MP

Was looking forward to getting this done so I could start relaxing with just easy runs between now and Sunday week. Decided I would do two warmup miles and then go for the 8MP. Felt fine , lots of little niggles appearing , calves, hamstring, left and right, hip etc but just tried to ignore them.

Once I got into MP I was feeling pretty comfortable despite a stiff headwind. It was going well until shortly into mile 8 I suddenly felt a pain in my left foot, just along the ball of foot. It started to get worse , so much so that I had to stop running. Christ, all sorts of thoughts were going through my head , including "WTF is that?!" several times. This was a new pain. Never experienced it at all throughout this training cycle. I walked for about 30secs and the pain started to ease. I thought about just walking rest of way home (about another mile and a half or so) but then decided to start running again very slowly at first. Felt ok after first few strides and then was able to gently increase the pace until I was back at MP.

This scared the bejaysus out of me so decided to call it a day and head for home quickly and cut the run short. I've no idea what happened there but I hope it doesn't happen again. I suppose it is a good sign that it stopped and I was able to run again on it pretty much straight away. Maybe there was a nerve trapped or something, haven't a clue to be honest, but I didn't like it!

So stopped just shy of 9 miles. MP miles were: 8:38,8:15,8:30,8:24,8:31,8:41,8:01

8.94miles@8:37avg

Noticed tonight that I was feeling pretty tired, even after a flight of stairs for example felt jaded in the legs so will focus on getting plenty of quality rest for next few days and early nights.


WTD|15.29
MTD|15.29
YTD|592.62

Ososlo wrote: »

Sh1t that must have been awful. Does it feel perfectly fine now? Wonder should you ice it? Hard to know what to do when you don't know what it was.

Yeah a bit scary. Don't know what to make of it right now. It's not bothering me as I walk about the house. Going to rest tomorrow and try a short run on Friday and see if it happens again.:mad:

menoscemo wrote: »

These kind of mad random niggles happen during taper. 95% it is nothing especially if it is not something you have had before so try not to worry about it too much.

Yeah I'm fairly sure it'll be fine. Just a bit worried I had to stop to sort it out. Will try not to think about it too much.

Beef wrote: »

Both of my legs are falling off and I'm 90% sure I have leprosy. I'd imagine like me, you'll develop these things this week and next and the day of the marathon your biggest problem will be who's round it is.

I truly hope so Beef. Fingers crossed.

HelenAnne wrote: »

Best of luck in London, R. It sounds like you've had a fantastic training block, so I'm sure you'll do brilliantly. Delighted it's all gone so well for you.

re your feet, I know this sounds SO basic & obvious, but check you're not tying your new shoes too firmly. I gave myself a mild case of tendonitis doing that -- 'Oh, I'll tie them firmly and give myself loads of support for running on trails.' I said to myself. But it backfired! The new laces could have less 'give' than your old tired ones?

Anyway, don't think about your feet. they'll be fine! Best of luck in London. Say 'hello' to Mo Farah from me

Thanks a million Helen,

Re the foot I'm pretty sure this is waht I have: http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-prevention-recovery/metatarsalgia

It could be the shoes or it could be just the build of training over last while. Interestingly Amphibian King mentioned that they didn't think the GTS14s gave as much support to pronators (per camera) as the GTS13s did and was anxious to get my feedback on that. I'm not sure though I've been running in them long enough for that to have an impact. maybe the cushioning on ball of foot is not as good as the GTS13s as I think the 14s are mroe designed for mid foot strikers(which I thought I was).

I've decided two days complete rest from running and ibuprofen with some icing, which I started last night. Thanks for that advice Ososlo.

Wlaking on it today I'm not feeling any pain save for a mild sensation that it is not quite perfect so I think it'll be ok. Mielage is not an issue this week or next so the reduction in that might help matters too. Will try do most of my runs on grass too I think if the rain holds off. It's London or bust now as far as I'm concerned.I've invested too much effort and time and money to miss out on this!

Say Hello to the rest of the gang for me if I don't see you between now and then.

Thursday 3rd April

NO running. 20 mins bike work and some stretching etc

Friday 4th April

No running. 30 mins bike work and some stretching

Saturday 5th April

Nervously stepped out the door to see how the foot felt. Idea was to just do a short run by feel and see if any reaction. All in all this went ok. I reckon if it feels like that next Sunday I should get around ok. I wore my second pair of new shoes which had hardly any miles in them to see if that made any difference. At end of run I felt much better in myself and certainly less worried about the foot than before the run.

In the aftermath I'm getting a niggling sensation along the arch of my foot but not so much on the ball of my foot. Every little ache seems to be accentuated at this stage though. Will leave it till the morning to decide whether to do longish easy run or not. 12miles in the plan but if I do it I'll be happy enough with 8-10.

3.54 miles @ 8:27avg... felt comfortable and no pain while running which is the important bit.


WTD|18.83
MTD|18.83
YTD|596.16

Monday 7th April

Short easy run late tonight. A few niggles here and there again but nothing a bit of stretching won't sort out. Legs overall felt heavy and stiff in places but from reading other logs this seems to be a common symptom in taper phase.

The foot was ok again tonight . I'm travelling to Frankfurt with work tomorrow so there'll be no running for the next couple of days. I'll do a few miles on Thursday and maybe on Friday do a couple more just to keep loose.

4.22miles @9:15

WTD|4.22
MTD|32.12
YTD|609.45

tang1 wrote: »

The hard work is done RR, you put in a great training cycle for this marathon. Take it easy for rest of the week & go run your time Sunday. The very best of luck dude.

Thanks Tang appreciate that. Glad to see your recovery is coming along well.

New runner wrote: »

All the very best of luck on sunday, u will do great. U deserve it.

cheers NR. Hopefully it with all go right on the day. so much can go wrong. I'm happy though that training has gone as well as it could have. In the lap of the running Gods now.