Marathon training: Week 6 – Exhausted legs

On Monday I took my tight calves and sore shins to a sports massage. To my relief the shins turned out to be in top condition – the pain I was having last week was only due to my calves being super tight.  After 30 minutes of pain, I walked away hopeful that this week was going to be better running wise than last week was.

On Tuesday I had Crossfit and had to do a bit of running as part of the ‘test’ – I ran a good 1 minute 24 second 400m and felt no pain.  On Wednesday I stretched before my run, probably for the first time ever – I’m THAT bad at stretching pre or post run. In general I don’t believe in stretching before a run, I think starting out slow is enough as a warm up. I have learned though that I do need to stretch after runs, straight after if it’s up to 15km and a bit later if it’s a longer run as muscles will be tired after that distance and probably don’t appreciate being stretched straight away.

So Wednesday’s run – it was ok. Everything below the knee felt tight for the first 5km but shins did not hurt and that was what made me happy.

On Thursday I did a short run at work during lunch time and it was the same – tight legs but no pain. On Friday I went to Crossfit in the evening as I had a meeting at work during lunchtime. It was the first time I’d been to Crossfit after work and it was hard – I was hungry and lacking energy.  After the WOD I felt great though so I thought that Saturday’s long run of just 23km would be a walk in the park.

However, the reality of week 6 of marathon training hit before 10km – my legs were so incredibly tired and heavy, and from then on I had the toughest run I can ever remember having – non-stop negative thoughts and legs that just wouldn’t move :|

Finished Run with @runmeter, 23.61 km, time 2:08:38, on a new route, average 5:27.

— MrsB (@MrsB_LDN) March 2, 2013

Such a tough run today. Shins are ok but legs in general are so tired :( Last night’s #crossfit probably didn’t help. #marathontraining

— MrsB (@MrsB_LDN) March 2, 2013

My Twitter running pals recommended to take an extra rest day and not to panic :)  A few hours after the run I felt a lot better already, both pysically and mentally – if I could get the shin pain situation under control with stretching, icing and foam rolling, surely I can get the tired leg situation under control with rest, stretching, icing and foam rolling.

I have two more long runs coming up, next week 32km and the week after 35km. Generally I don’t mind running alone but any run over 30km gets a bit lonely so I think I’ll do these ones with MrB – hopefully that means that time will pass quicker and that there won’t be any opportunity for negative thoughts to creep into my head while I have someone to chat to.  So at the moment I’m feeling positive even though yesterday’s run was a disaster :)

Stats for this week:

• Monday: Rest & 30 min sports massage
• Tuesday: Crossfit
• Wednesday: 10.74km at 5:24 min/km pace, 57:57 = 6.6 miles
• Thursday: 7.93 km at 5:11 pace, 41:05 = 4.9 miles
• Friday: 30 min leg massage & Crossfit
• Saturday: 23.61km at 5:27 pace, 2:08:38 = 14.6 miles
• Sunday: Rest

Total running: 42.28 km / 26.2 miles

P.S. If you have faith that I WILL run this marathon in April, please sponsor me :)