2007 - October

[El Gordo]

After my great week last week, I've had a setback.

Went for an excellent Sunday morning lope with the club in some glorious (and previously unknown to me) woods about 4 miles from home. The circuit was around 3 miles, and we were free to run 1, 2 or 3 laps depending on how we felt. I decided on 2 as a step up from last week's raft of 4 x 3.5 milers.

Lovely setting. Nice tracks through dense woodland marking out the borders of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Not hilly but the odd undulation to give it some interest.

Around the 5 mile mark, I felt a totally unexpected sharp pain in my right calf. Too severe to continue running. Limped the mile or so back to the start, and drove home, where I applied the old R-I-C-E treatment on and off for the rest of the day.

Monday it was painful, Tuesday and today I can feel it without it being too unpleasant. I've had calf imjuries before, and I know they can stetch on for weeks if not treated properly. So much against my instincts and renewed enthusiasm, I'm going to take the week off running and see how I feel towards the end of the weekend. Even when it feels back to normal, I know it can 'go' again, and more seriously, if it's not fully recovered.

A nuisance, but I need to do what's right.

I'm in Bournemouth for a couple of days at a conference. My only tilt towards athletics was attendance at a fascinating talk by the marketing director of the London Olympics 2012 bid. I'll write about it on the blog shortly.

[Sweder]

Bad luck old man.
All my 'damage' is self-inflicted at the moment. It's horrible; I can feel all the efforts of a hard working summer ebbing away as I give running the slip week after week. I guess one's true colours are revealed when one ditches the Jog Shop Jog - about the finest race in the South East IMHO - for a long weekend on the lash in Dublin with SP.

You know your own bod better than most, but I'd recommend a bit of physio. My calf-knack lasted from March (post-Steyning) through TOM to early May. Might be best to give it a good bashing early on.

I heartily recommend the Chinese Suction Cup treatment . . .

[El Gordo]

Bad luck old man.
All my 'damage' is self-inflicted at the moment. It's horrible; I can feel all the efforts of a hard working summer ebbing away as I give running the slip week after week. I guess one's true colours are revealed when one ditches the Jog Shop Jog - about the finest race in the South East IMHO - for a long weekend on the lash in Dublin with SP.

You know your own bod better than most, but I'd recommend a bit of physio. My calf-knack lasted from March (post-Steyning) through TOM to early May. Might be best to give it a good bashing early on.

A long weekend in Dublin, including the televised rugby World Cup semis (not to mention England in the Euros) isn't something to lightly pass up. You've made the right decision.

Why not just think of it as the last of the summer wine, or Guinness, and resolve to knuckle down properly once you get back? Mid-October is as good a time to start anew as any. Weather cool but not cold, and a few weeks of steady fitness building culminating in the Brighton 10K, before the more serious marathon training (if you're planning on a spring mara).

You may be right about the physio. The pain has gone but there's still a threatening tightness there. I get free physio through work I believe, so I should take advantage of it.

Cheers.

[Sweder]

Football . . . . bloody hell!
Just when we were happy, safe in the knowledge we had no chance of making it to Euro 2008 Israel went and gave us the one thing that's worse than despair - hope. England still have a very real chance of blowing it on Wednesday night. If anyone one can, England can.

I'd like to say bad luck to Scotland, but it sticks in my craw.
The memory of all those Argentina shirts sold North of the Border during the last World Cup have left me feeling smug, content that the fans who love to hate England more than they love their own team were robbed at the death.
Hard cheese.

Hats off to Norn Iron Won Nil. Qualification may be a fading dream but when it comes to heart and pulling a result out against the odds those boys take some beating.