Time to Taper!

Good afternoon all,

So I left you on Easter Sunday awaiting the arrival of Rob's Dad and partner who arrived shortly after I pressed the Publish button.  We had a lovely meal, copious amounts of red wine and lots of yummy desert.


So on Easter Monday I decided I had best get my fatty boom boom backside out on a short recovery run.  Unfortunately disaster struck in the form of a very stiff and painful neck.  I managed 4 miles but it was mostly walking.

It only got worse as the week progressed so I booked Sharon in to do a Sports Massage on Thursday afternoon.  Apparently the left side of my back was solid, so much so it took her full body weight on to her elbow to push through the muscles.  Trust me this was not nice, it really really hurt!  She also had a go at my left calf which had gotten much better but was a little bit tighter than my right.

It really helped loosen up my back and I was hoping that was that.

On Friday an event I had been planning at work took place, the whole school staff and students were to walk 5772 miles in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.  Months of planning had come down to 3.5 hours of walking or running round the field.

I don't mind admitting it had been stressing me out in the past few weeks, and probably contributed to the tension in my back.  I was so worried that it wouldn't go to plan on the day and I would look stupid in front of all of my colleagues, parents and press having advertised it all over social media.

But there was no need to worry, the day went better than expected, everyone had so much fun, and we managed to walk the distance in less time than we had allocated which was fantastic.  I even managed 4 miles myself on the track, and probably at least another 4 running backwards and forwards to check everything was as it should be and dancing to our resident DJ (Head of Music).  All in all it was a magnificent day, and so far we have raised over £1000 which is amazing.

Unfortunately though, I hadn't slept well the night before and didn't eat at all until about 1pm that day, by the time I got home I was so tired, and my back/neck/shoulder was killing me.  More pain killers and an early night and I was sure I would be better on the Saturday.

No such luck, Saturday brought the worst pain, in fact by last night I was in so much pain in my shoulder I ended up crying and thought I was going to be sick.  I applied pain relief gel to the area and took a heat pack to bed with me.

I knew I had to do my long run today, It was my last longest LSR before taper.  I got up and downed some more pain killers, had a good breakfast and downloaded an audio book.  If I was going to walk 18 miles then I needed something interesting to listen to.

Off I went, I walked the first 3 miles, and my back/shoulder all eased up considerably, so I jogged a mile and it was ok.  I proceeded to 9 miles walking a mile, jogging a mile.  I had intended to continue up the river like this until 10 miles, however at mile 9 I got lost.

I know that sounds hard to believe when you are running up a path along a river, but you come to this section where there are 3 or more bridges, and there were workmen doing work to one of them.

I went over one and popped into a cafe to get some more water and use their toilet.  Which by the way took forever as there had been a cyclist in there, who must have decided to remove every piece of clothing, use the toilet and then put every bit of clothing and his helmet back on before leaving.  I almost did a 'Paula Radcliff' there and then outside of the cafe.

I left the cafe and walked the way I thought I was meant to but ended up in a caravan park, someone told me I had to go back over the bridge and back down on to the river, so I did but then realised I was in a small forest type clearing that was a dead end so I walked back to find I had gone in a circle and was back at the cafe so decided to just to start my way back up the river towards home.

I continued to walk to mile 10 and then continued at jogging half mile and walking half mile.  I wanted to try something different today with fueling, making sure I was doing what was best for me come marathon day.  So I brought my usual amount of GELS and also a packet of wine gums.  (Which just happen to be my favorite sweet.)  In total I had 1 High5 ISO GEL - Berry and one High5 GEL - Raspberry and a whole packet of Wine gums.  It seemed to work well.

By 13 Miles it was really quite warm and the river looked very inviting.  Still its in my nature to take a quick swim when it gets hot so hardly surprising!

Just after 14 miles I stopped to buy another bottle of water, I paused my watch and then forgot to re start it until about half mile up the river!  DUR! I continued on at run 1/4 mile walk 1/4 mile until 17.25 miles and then walked the rest home to 18.2 miles.

It took me 4 hours 34 minutes but that was OK, as I feel amazing since I have been home.  My legs and feet stopped hurting within an hour of being home and my shoulder back isn't hurting.  I can start to feel every thing seizing up so I have to keep getting up and moving round but otherwise I feel a bit more confident about doing London Marathon in 3 weeks time.


Now it is time to taper (YES!)  I still have to train but it all gets cut back a little each week.

I hope that you are all getting out and being as proud of yourselves as I am of myself.  It doesn't matter what shape, size or fitness you are, the roads, grass, trail which ever you choose to run on just doesn't care.  It is happy to have you there and we can do it, its all mental ability!

Keep Running
FBB xx