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Manchester-Week 14

Manchester, the second coming ...
Week 14

The week in numbers ...

Miles ran: 44
Chocolate eaten: Lost count early in the week
Pizza eaten : none
Wine drank: unsure, at least 2 bottles
Beers drank: also unsure, quit a few

Weight: Monday 10st10lb
Sunday 10st11lb

Monday 7th April

It's Monday so it's rest day once again.

I'm finding lots of niggles are starting to appear and pretty much every part of my body aches or hurts in some way. Work is very busy so I'm on my feet all day and a lot of it stems from my back so this week I'm getting on top of foam rolling and stretching.

This is also week one of properly watching the diet and cutting out alcohol, hopefully this will help with sleeping as I'm a terrible sleeper.

Tuesday 8th April

It's track tonight and Graham's not here so I was hoping to get out early and do a session and then be around to sort the track session tonight but a busy day means that doesn't happen.

So plan B is to get all the groups started and once the sprint groups are gone I can start the session and do it solo. The problem with this plan is I hate doing solo track sessions because I need the pressure of not falling behind to make me hit pace and this also means I'll still be running when everyone else has finished and gone home.

To add to my already bad mood, Adidas dont have the shoes I want to try out and try fobbing me off with some racing flats that are white. Do they not know I don't 'do' white. I rectify this problem by coming home after the session and ordering a pair of lucid lemon trainers which are as bright as they sound.

Anyway back to the session . All the groups start and the sprinters are gone and I begin rep 1.

It's 500, 700, 900, 1100, 900, 700, 500 with half run recoveries and I have a genius idea to cut all the recoveries so I finish quicker. I forget this also means I have less recovery so makes the session particularly horrible.

Anyway I absolutely nail it. Hit 22/23 per hundred all the way through and take half the recoveries and finish just after AB and C are finished.

Jog home and my left knee which has been fine is now suddenly hurting quite a bit. Home for a shower and then stick the compression boots on to help me recover. Go to bed and both knees hurt.

Wednesday 9th April

Easy miles today, up early and get ready and need to be out by 9am at the latest to be back ready for work.

Knees hurting but I think an easy one will ease them off, then I realise this is a shit idea and I need to take a day off and let my body recover.

Head into the kitchen to get a coffee and stick the radio on. Ask Google to put the radio on but the screen is all black and won't come on, stand there for a few minutes trying to get it to listen to me, I plug it and reboot it and then screens still black and not coming on.

Get pissed off and go and get my phone to see how much a new Google home will cost me and my phone screens also really dark.

It's at this point I remember .....

I'm still wearing my fucking sunglasses.

I'm such a dick.

Take them off and my phone and Google are no longer dark.

What a twat.

Thursday 10th April

Back to thresholds, only a couple more of these before the marathon and determined to get them both done and stop bailing on then when I can't be bothered.

Knees aching but not too bad, 2 mile warm up and I feel okay. Got the session programmed in the watch and it's not too bad today. So it's 2km at threshold pace and then straight into 1km at marathon pace, a recovery and then go again 2 more times.

Start first rep and decide I'm just going up and down the prom, so it's two full lengths at faster speed and then slow down. Coming up to the 2km point and looking forward to dropping the pace, my watch will beep any time now, why hasn't it beeped, it should have beeped by now.

And then I remember...

It's 3km, not 2km. Oh shit.

I wrote the bloody session, I programmed it into my watch and I'd already forgotten what I'm doing.

It's 3km and then 1km, that's horrible and it's sunny and I'm too hot and very sweaty.

Get through the first two sets and takes a serious amount of will power to not go home. Start rep 3 and get it done albeit too fast because I want to go home.

Foxhunters tonight so I'll run there and back for a few more miles and hope the knees are okay.

Run home from Foxhunters and once I get in the house I realise my left knee really hurts, I want wine.

I can't have wine.

Friday 11th April

The knees hurts.

The left knee really aches so I'm sacking off today's easy miles and hills.

I'm getting a sharp stabbing pain right in the side of my knee and I'm limping and can't walk down the stairs without holding the banister to support my weight, this seems like a problem and I'm having a minor panic about it.

I have a massage booked today and I'll get my quads hammered to ease the knees and that should fix the problem. Get my massage, my quads are really tight and my left shin is particularly painful.

I keep thinking I need to do 17 miles tomorrow but I'll have nice bouncy shoes on and that will help.

Massage done and everything around the knee felt okay when it was worked on but it still hurts and as the day goes on it gets worse, running 17 miles tomorrow would be truly idiotic.

I get my gear out to run 17 miles.

I lay it all out ready to get up early and head out.

Friday night watching telly and lots of poking and prodding around my knee and some very painful trigger point work to my tibialis anterior and my knee eases quite a bit.

Head up to bed and have a sudden realisation that running 17 miles is truly idiotic, even for me.

I'm worried about my knee and deciding between a test run tomorrow or taking the next 2 weeks off so I can make the marathon start.

Saturday 12th April

Wake up at 8 and stand up.

Knee feels okay, a bit stiff but no sharp pain.

Walk down the stairs and I don't have to limp, no sharp pain.

Get ready and walk to parkrun.

Start parkrun steady and all feels okay, pick up the pace and no pain.

Finish parkrun in about 21 mins and it's fine, thank god.

Saturday night and loads more very painful trigger point to my tibialis and around the knee and it's definitely working.

Sunday 13th April

No great plan today.

I decide to head out and just see how I feel, I'm adding some loops in near to home so I can stop if I have to.

The pace is a little slower than normal but all feels good and next thing I know I'm heading up the coast road.

Turn to head back and see the Sunday morning F and G gang heading towards me, my love of the Coast Road has obviously spread and the group all want to have a taste of it's magical properties.

If you haven't realised by now, I love the Coast Road.

My favourite bits in no particular order are the foot bridges near to Silverlink, there are two of these in quick succession and one has a lot of paint spilled all over it. I'm guessing someone got themselves some paint from B&Q and dropped it, I hope they had enough left to get the painting done when they got home. I think about this way too much. The bus stop up bear the Aldi or it might be a Lidl is another highlight, you can run behind or in-front of it, I'm a fan of the front as it gives access to the bin for a gel packet but it can be a gamble if there are people standing around this area, I once nearly wiped out a deliveroo bike rider once who was checking his map. But I think my favourite bit is the crossing at the Formica factory, the site where i lay my Paw Patrol sunglasses to rest and always a lovely spot to stop and have a little rest waiting for the lights to change.

Pace is picking up and I'm running mara pace down towards Cullercoats, head along to Whitley and feel good, onto the prom and loop round.

Hit 17 miles near co-op and decide for once not to stop and to keep going and head home and do a bit more, get to 18 miles and that's the final long run all done.

My knee is fine. My quads hurt like hell. My back hurts. I'm just bloody knackered.

2 weeks to go.