Santa is NOT Coming to Town

This Santa Claus is definitely not coming to town in Wilmslow Cheshire tomorrow. 

I should be taking part in the Wilmslow festive 10K for which I enjoy wearing a Santa outfit most years but sadly a back strain has decided to get worse just at the wrong time. It's really tempting to go ahead and run but I've a horrible feeling that I'm just going to hurt myself and knock my training back even further . This is really depressing as I'd only just about got my Achilles right and was hoping to get on with my training properly, but instead of that I've been knocked back a few weeks and I am now seriously concerned as to where things go from here.

This autumn-winter so far has been really bad news for me with a series of injuries from hamstring pulls to recurring Achilles pain and my back coming back to haunt me. To explain the last comment I hurt my back when I was 19, 50 years ago, and over the years it regularly decides to give me problems, usually at the most inopportune times.

Trying to maintain some fitness and strength, my Thursday run was replaced by a 400m swim and my Saturday indoor bike session replaced by a 5km fast walk. I will miss the 10k race tomorrow but, all being well, get in a short run on Monday which is my long run day.

My Training Plan

Ironically, I created my outline training plan last week and it's already gone to pot. On the positive side, I learned during training for my 65th birthday Half-Marathon  that plans have to be flexible. That time I built a solid progression and took no account of holidays, appointment clashes, family emergencies, illness, injury etc. 

For my 70th birthday London Marathon, the first thing  I did was scour my calendar for likely holidays or trips and matched them to rest periods allocating long runs to fit. I have taken my kit with me on several trips and never used it once. Knowing my own body now I have also dropped the simple continuous increase in duration/distance and instead ramp up and fall back in stages. This should both assist with boredom and reduced injury likelihood.

The other big change is that I am planning based on Duration rather than Distance, though admittedly with an eye to both. As I recover from injury I may be out for 50 minutes but that will be a walk/run combination, in healthier times it will be all run and therefore a longer distance. I anticipate being on the streets of London between 5 & 6 hours and monitor that against my actual pace as I train.

Miles vs Kilometres

I have stuck to training in Kilometres after being tempted to miles due to the Marathon tending to be described in miles. I am used to managing my routes in Km and the numbers pass by so much faster. I tend to think as I run how far I am in terms or proportion of distance covered, e.g. I know when I am 2/3 of the way and only have 1/3 left. I also like to think of a Half as 2 x 10km (plus a bit) and now the Marathon as 4 x 10 (plus a lot). I distinctly recall 3/4 through the Half Marathon thinking, right, only a parkrun to go, I can do that.

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