Judith's Marathon Journey

Hard work today – 10.5k including 2 x 2km and 1 x 1km @ around 6min/km. And the first half was into the wind! It was actually a bit faster than I wanted, and I guess that’s why I couldn’t manage the 3rd 2km effort! Still, good to know I can still go that fast!

Monday – rest day! Felt really sore and stiff, and oh, so tired…

Tuesday – ran 5km – reasonably slow to start with, feeling stiff and sore. But better as the run went on. Tonight – yoga….

A pretty disappointing week – I kept running out of time and energy!

But yesterday was full on, with 4 games of netball to umpire, and then my own club game. I played badly – so tired! In between, I managed about 3k of to-and-fro running – including a mad ‘sprint’ to get to my game on time.

Today I ran 18k in 2:04:28 – a good effort considering yesterday’s load. Great day for it – the wind wasn’t too strong at all, and it was warm and sunny in the middle of the day. I was pretty tired by the last km, but not crawling!

Yesterday I had a good long run, 16km in about 1:50, around the northern end of the Miramar Peninsula. The wind was testing – especially the last km along Cobham Drive! Apart from that, I felt the distance wasn’t a problem, so that’s consoling! I certainly had some soreness in that troublesome sacroiliac joint, but stopping to stretch at the hour mark and again half an hour later helped. For the rest of the day I felt pretty sore and sorry! But I’m good today.

Tonight I’ll go to the Yoga class at my gym – stretch out a few stiff muscles!

Tuesday: Yoga – but the teacher didn’t arrive, and there were only 3 of us for the class, so we used a video. I managed a good half-hour workout, with lots of downward facing dog!

Wednesday: Another rest day – but only because I stayed up all night watching the Black Caps in England!

Thursday: ExpressFit – first class for several weeks, so tough going.

Friday: With foul winter weather, I opted for the treadmill (again) – 8km with 3 x 1.5km @ 6:07min/km and 0.5 km jogs in between. Pretty pleased with this – good workout.

Saturday: Just about 2.5km jogging between home and netball. Although I only umpired 2 games, the game I played was hard work! We’ve been promoted one grade (maybe temporarily!) and I found the pace much harder to cope with.

Sunday: Exhausted after yesterday, so another rest day. I hope this doesn’t become a winter pattern! Less than 20km this week!

Ran 8k in 52:50 – flat run, into the wind on the way out. Happy with this time because I wasn’t pushing it; in fact I was holding back – reminding myself this was meant to be a ‘slow’ run!

Some soreness in sacroiliac joint and left knee, but not affecting my running. Stretching helps!

Ran 6.5km in 41:40 – very happy with this, as it’s faster than my usual jog! This has been an easy week, just to give my body a break from hard training, and I’m happy with the way I’ve run. From next week the distances will start to increase, building up to the half-marathon on 5 July.

In terms of the marathon, I’m happy enough with progress so far. But I do think there are question marks over whether my body will hold up as the mileage increases. Here’s hoping!

Friday: Rest day.

Saturday: 5km on the treadmill, with 7 x 30 seconds hard (reaching 4:45 min/km!!!) with 2 minute jogs. Good effort.

Friday: My left knee is stiff and sore – probably arthritis! Rest day to see if that helps.

Saturday: Knee still dodgy, but strangely enough, it’s OK when I’m running! Just jogged about 3km (oh, includes ‘sprint’ to my game!) between home, supermarket, netball courts… Played half a game of netball, and umpired just 2 games, so a bit of an easy day!

Sunday: My knee was aching over the first five minutes, and I’d decided to turn back and abort – then the soreness eased. So I tried hill drills: 5 x 90 seconds up Crawford Road, jog down – no problems. Then jogged around Kilbirnie until the soreness came back – about 30 odd minutes, maybe 4.5 km.

Monday/Tuesday: Feeling flat and ‘blah…..’ so I didn’t run. I hoped rest would help.

Wednesday: A better day! Very windy, so opted for the treadmill – 7.5 km, including 3 x 1.5 km at 6:07 min/km, with 1/2 km jogs in between. Very happy with that, and lifted my mood!

Thursday: The wind dropped, and I decided to try to nail an overdue long run. I did 14.5 km in about 1:35. Sacroiliac joint definitely not happy, but responded to stops for stretching. But apart from that I felt strong and probably could have done more – good sign! Very sore later, but I expect a good night’s sleep and a rest day from running tomorrow will do the trick.

Tuesday: Yoga – still recovering from yesterday’s long run, and I found the yoga class really took away some of the lingering soreness!

Wednesday: Another rest day – a bit of asthma, and with the wind and cold, I decided to chill out.

Thursday: 8km on the treadmill – 52:09. This included 3x1km ‘threshold’ pace (just under 6 min/km), with 1km jogs in between. Really enjoyed this, and had a good stretch afterwards. Unfortunately, I still felt stiff and sore later in the day!