I made a comments to Clown last week about the rituals involved pre marathon - Friday night Carb dinner with other runners, entering the day before at Runners World, dropping off my self prepared drinks, race morning breakfast etc.
The one I forgot about was my pre Marathon virus, which has happened every Perth Marathon, somewhere between 3 and 1 week out. This one came on Tuesday, and was complicated by my contact with Swine Flu - such that on wednesday when I developed fevers and muscle aches, I had to have swabs and be quarantined. I don't think I had swine flu ('novel H1N1' to be politically correct) but advice from the health dept said I needed to stay away from work. So I started my Tamiflu and stayed at home, eating and watching DVDs for 3 days. Guess I'll find out this week if I did or not.
Running wise I played it safe - 12k@4:10s on Tues then no running whilst sick. Feeling better this morning I headed out for 12k@4:25 with Rob and cruised, felt energised by the run after only one run in the preceding week. I really wanted to head out for a second this afternoon but decided to play it safe.
My understanding is that I should have lost minimal performance with this time off (?0.6% or one minute over the marathon!). This week will see running 5 or 6 days with shortish sessions with plenty of time at MP and tempo pace (total 60k). The good news is that my achilles and hamstring tendonitis is much improved.
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5 comments:
Mmmh, traditions can be a bit of a pain.
The real question is though: what did you watch?
You are dead right I think - you will have lost little if anything of your fitness. There are heaps of stories of great runners who have have been laid up for one reason or another in the fortnight before a marathon and then come out to run brilliantly (Carlos Lopes hit by a car before the 84 Olympics is a classic example). The hay is in the barn, you only have to stop it from going mouldy.
The down week could work in your favour by re-filling your energy levels and repair the muscles (fresher legs). Hope things get better next week.
Thanks guys,
Homo - I watched 2 seasons of Entourage (recommended by my cousin - hilarious)
I think I am using the illness to temper my expectations - with some fast sessions I might have been sucked into aiming too high. In the end - sub3hrs would be a 15min PB and a 5year goal achieved - nothing more is needed
sub 3 should very much be on the agenda still, and as Biscuitman says many runners run absolutely brilliant races of their life after recovering from illness, I think its partly mental, partly the bodys physical response to fighting illness, its better than taking EPO or altitude training...maybe I should consider catching a virus to get me the PB...nah maybe not...I hope you didn't eat too many DVD's not much useful food there...hahahaha...speaking of traditions I will have to get my 2004 Perth marathon DVD/video out to watch next week...let me know the Friday night dinner details and if i knock ogg early from work I may come visit, but its unlikely as I am scheduled for 1800-0200...
Your training homework is done, its all about getting past the illness, getting ready mentally (the traditions/rituals can be good with that, although don't be a slave to them) psyching up, get the drinks in the day before etc, for the main exam on July 5th. All indications would be that this will be your finest marathon so far and a sub 3 or better at that...
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