One week to go!

Wow! Six months have passed since I signed up for the Royal Parks Half Marathon and race day is nearly here...

It wont have escaped your attention that I have been somewhat quiet of late.  A recurrence of good ol' "shin splints" in the week after my last blog post, put the brakes on my training schedule (again).  During this training hiccup, I have struggled to find things to write about.  Well how about the past six weeks for a start?

Last time, I had just completed an 8 mile run and was really stepping up the training.  The shin splints came on during the next run, so I stopped the training for that week.  I could barely walk for the first few days, but after a week of rest I felt good enough to run again.  By this time I was in Ireland and I managed to pound the hard concrete pavements for two 4 mile runs, but the pain returned on the third run.  I rested for another 10 days before resuming training at the beginning of September.  I actually managed an almost complete week of training, culminating in a 9 mile run.  True to form, the pain came back so that was my last long run.

Clearly I need to address the issue of shin splints, so finally I started doing exercises to strengthen the dorsiflexor muscles - these are the muscles that pull the foot towards the shin and in many cases the source of the shin pain.   I am also back in the gym, with some gentle treadmill running and keeping up the cardio fitness on the bikes.

So where am I now and where should I be in respect of my training schedule?  The furthest I have run is 9 miles a month ago, where as I should have been up to 12 miles last week.  I was however heartened by the feeling that I could have run a few extra miles on the 9 mile run, so am confident that I will manage the 13.1 miles come race day.

I am looking forward to race day with mixed emotions, both relief and trepidation.  Relief in that the race will soon be over and all going well, I will have pushed myself further than ever before.  Trepidation in so far as I still have to reach the Help a London Child fundraising target, though with the help of all you lovely people it shouldn't be a concern.  If you haven't already done so, please do visit my Justgiving page - all donations are massively appreciated!

Race Day - 10th October 2010.  The countdown begins...