Achilles and the non-Marathon

 That was a long, long break from blogging, but not running. I've kept the HM habit and reached the point of losing count. I've also reached 40. I decided quite some time ago to go for the near obligatory marathon. On some consideration, I decided to go for doing it at 40 rather than 39 for the age grading. Just as well as I was 39 in Feb 2020... I also quickly realised that 40 in 2021 wasn't looking great either...

I had managed an impressive 3 races in 2020; the Carsington Half in Feb (inadvertantly run with a torn muscle), Carsington 7+ in September, and the Thoresby Leaf Kick HM in October. I also ran the Longhorn 10k in April 2021. Racing under social distancing guidelines did dampen the social fun and atmosphere of racing. Things got back to normal in the autumn and I had a congested season of autumn races and delayed spring races. Carsington 7+ (Sept), Derby 10k (Oct), Derby 10miles (Nov) and Derby Half (Nov). Training went well and despite a -1⁰C start on race day I blasted out a new pb of 2:09:55. Next Saturday I went to parkrun. My ankle was slightly stiff on getting up, warmed up and I got a second pb in a week of 5k in 28:19!

December was a fairly quiet month for running. Slight, intermittent niggle in the ankle. A mild bout of Covid caused a gentle start to the new year. I had signed up for Manchester Marathon on 3rd April 2022. With a HM pb behind me, I'd got some slack on these hiccups. I did a gentle 10k and the niggle crept in at 4.5mi. The next day I had my regular Osteopath maintainence. He said the dreaded words "Achilles tendonitis" accimpanied by a firm "No running for a month". I stammered a response of "but, Manchester Marathon!" After a pause and intake of breath there was a very firm "NO RUNNING FOR TWO WEEKS"

This was serious. I've behaved well. I ended up deferring after a week as it clearly was not clearing up within another week to be obliging about 14, 16, 18 miles. I've cycled, swum (indoors and out! Yup, I took up open water swimming in June 2021), gently paced my way through my usual classes and walked. I have tried C25k w1 r1 &r2 but stopped as the tired ache returned.

I thought the races would make for a good preparation for a marathon hence feeling positive about signing up... instead they triggered a classic over-use injury.

Another Osteopath appointment later this week. I'm guessing more cross training before a gentle return to running is sensible to attempt.