Five weeks today till the 2015 Thames Path 100. It’s getting close, and I’m getting a bit nervy.
The Thames Path 100 and I have a bit of history:
- I DNF’d in 2013 after 76 miles on the flooded/rerouted race
- Had to withdraw last year after injuring myself two weeks before the start date.
So, I planned to be 100% ready this year. Although this years training started well, I’ve had a niggle with my Achilles for the past 3 weeks.
I went from 50-60 miles per week to 6 miles per week. Hobbling around in pain after each run, and compensating / protecting my ankle with every stride.
Thankfully that seems to be behind me now. This past week I’ve run 6 times, mostly around 4 or 5 miles, but a bit of a breakthrough yesterday with a 13 miler along the canal. I felt as though I had to give it a good solid test, so I just cracked on yesterday. Certainly felt some pain afterwards, but it quickly went so I’m taking that as a good sign.
I am worried about the 3 weeks of missed training, but if I can get ramped back up to 50 miles per week for the next 3 or 4 weeks then I should be good. I don’t want to overdo it but I really cannot afford to do it slowly…
The foam roller has helped – I rediscovered it during the week. Waking up with stiff ankles and tight calves on Thursday morning, I spent some time looking for ankle mobility tricks – mostly it was massage the muscles – so I hit the foam roller for an hour on Thursday night then felt amazing on Friday morning, no stiffness at all. I guess I had forgotten just how effective it can be – an hours pain, but well worth it. Kind of planning to try and do it at least once per week.
Thames Path 100, five weeks… here we go…
