Hey guys, sorry been a while… I’m so behind on all the blogging business at the moment…I kind of avoided it a bit as I wasn’t feeling all that up-beat. But I’m feeling more positive now.
I worked from home on Thursday which is always nice. Though Alfie gets very confused and expects me to walk him every five minutes. Hmm. I also managed to make my own standing desk.
I am so aware of how much of the day I spend sat down so I’m trying to minimise this where I can. At work there’s not much I can do but get up a lot and walk about (go to the loo, get lots of drink – helpfully it’s a self perpetuating cycle). And lots of my hip flexor stretches!
I had the day off on Friday. Ben was supposed to as well but in the end he had to go in. So what does an Anna do when she has no plans and the house to herself? Clean. Fun times. I also washed Alfie in the bath. I used the shower head thing and he was not loving it at all. Neither was I as he kept shaking and getting soap and water everywhere.
An old photo, but essentially the same look on Alfie’s face
Then I dropped the shower head and the water went straight in my face and all over the walls. Joy.
I also had the sports massage that I’d gotten from Groupon. *Sighs* I have mixed opinions about the guy I saw. It seemed he was a bit hell bent on trying to sign me up for another five sessions to properly ‘fix me’. And though he certainly didn’t say it, he definitely implied that if I didn’t come back and see him again my niggles were bound to reoccur and I won’t be able to run. He told me a lot of stuff I already knew and was already working on with my running school coach so I don’t feel I’m missing out on any valuable hidden information. The appointment wasn’t completely worthless though as he massaged a lot of knots out of my body, but I won’t be going back there.
Saturday morning was my first day back in my trainers and ready to run. Sort of. Ben and me went down early to help set up.
It was so cold. We had our winter coats on over our running gear but we were still freezing. I was dreading taking my coat off to run!
I ran with Ben and left the music at home so I could just focus on what my legs felt like. I kept things very, very easy. I had a knee support on as well. Things felt OK, not amazing but no pain. Just a bit weak and slightly uncomfortable. But better. The plan for this week is to keep things very easy.
Sunday I went to the gym in the morning to get back into my strength workouts. I did the following routine:
-
Bridges (holding for 30 seconds and pulsing)
- Squats (holding a weight in front)
- Wall squats
- Single leg squats (no weights, and went fine – these were my biggest concern as when my knee was its worst I couldn’t do this without pain)
- Russian twists
- Press ups
- Glute ham raises
- Planks
I spent an hour just going through all these moves and repeating them. My aim is to continue to build up my leg strength. I’m terrified I’ll crumble in the marathon!
Then I gently cycled 6.5 miles to meet my parents, Ben and my mother-in-law at the lovely tea room we’re loving. I wanted to do something gentle to shake my legs out after the weights and also start to build things back up again.
I have to say, the cycle there was far better than the cycle back. Cake doesn’t lend itself to be a great cycling friend.
How pretty is that plate? Oh and the cake was amazing obviously
So my plan for the rest of the week in terms of running? Oh jeeze, I have no idea! My legs felt fine for the rest of the day after the Parkrun, and the next day. Doing the leg exercises in the gym felt fine as did cycling. But I still don’t feel like I could just go out and bang out 18 miles or run 7 min miles at the moment. My leg doesn’t feel strong – does that make sense?
So this week is all about gently getting back into it. I’m going to run on Tuesday night and aim for 6 miles but just see how it goes. I just pray everything will feel OK and I can maybe think about a longer run (10-13 miles?) on Sunday. Nothing crazy and it’s not set in stone. At this point, I’ll be lucky to get in one decent long (17+ mile) run before the marathon. Maybe I’m being pessimistic…I’m not in a confident place right now! I know my knee is miles better than it was but I don’t want to aggravate things again before it’s ready…it’s a guessing game at the moment. All I can do is take one mile at a time.
I know it’s almost Tuesday…but how was your weekend?
Marathon runners, how many long runs did you do before doing a marathon?
Do you sit down a lot for work/school?