5 Days To GER

Tuesday: A very warm and sunny day for training. I decided to try running without a drink, wanting to push myself to cope for 35mins. Also, I was annoyed at having forgotten to get practice in, running on the streets, since GER is on the road, so today was a case of venturing out of the park. I did some running on the roads nearly two months ago (feels like a long time ago) when, in order to work round the kids being looked after, I used to get up at 5 or 6am. The park would be closed so I ran on quiet, near-empty streets. The experience was generally a good one but I went back to the beauty, comfort and quiet of the park. It was interesting being back out there, knowing I had to focus harder as there were more distractions. It was much noisier (my cheap headphones struggled even at maximum volume) and I found it a pain having to watch out for pedestrians, as well as having to cross roads, watching the traffic. I am not used to all that at all and ended up going off on a route that was a very long pavement with no roads to cross. However, it was good to get experience of a different kind of running surface, one that is more similar to what I will be running on for GER. I had very slow songs on my playlist to slow my speed down, it took a lot of conscious effort to keep me from running faster. The run felt very tough at times, the right calf became stiff very quickly and stayed like that for a lot of the run. Also, the right ankle ached strongly during the first half of the run, perhaps not 100% since nearly injuring it 2 days ago, but it was fine for the second half of the run. It really takes a lot of fun out of running when that happens. I hadn't applied any gel today, I only do that if the stiffness or aches are present before a run. Ironically, I didn't apply gel for the last run either and did 67mins without too much calf trouble at all. This is something I must remember for the race, the importance of applying the calf gel. Today I covered 5.01km in 34mins 31secs, faster than I expected. Great trainer had wanted me to do 35mins but I would have it maybe 40mins trying to get to the next measureable point and I was done for well before I finished. When I stopped, my calf suddenly seized up, very painful feeling, and I kept moving, since standing still for a second was too painful. My cool down walk was me limping for 10mins back to the car and I really wished, not for the first time, that the car was an automatic, it hurt to drive. At the end of the day, the right calf and ankle are both aching. The calf and knee are quite strongly aching, despite freezing cold water applied to them. Tomorrow is a rest day and hopefully this will make a difference. The ankle worries my slightly, the twinges vary in strength no matter if I am resting or on my feet. I need to be really careful, since the Great Manchester Run is 2 weeks after this race, and I need to stay injury-free till then. Feeling quite nervous about the race, partly due to the aches I am having, and partly the thought of running alongside thousands of people, that is daunting for someone who chooses to run alone. Looking forward to going to Edinburgh, however, maybe meet up with some friends beforehand, and hopefully that will put me in a happier, more relaxed mood for the big day.