Turns out I was right to be nervous: 2 miles into this morning’s run I appear to have sprung a torn calf.
45 minute walk back home, I’m doing what I can to sort it out. It feels fairly minor, so I’m hoping it’s just a small one and I stopped early enough for it not to impact training too much.
If not then, with only 4 weeks to race day, that’s my marathon over for this year.
Always this next year?
The Barkley Marathons race starts when Laz Lake Cantrell is seen lighting a cigarette
There’s many extreme races I look at and they excite me. The Barkley Marathon is one that terrifies me instead.
I wouldn’t last physically anyhow, but trying to remember what page number to rip off after 40+ hours isn’t going to happen!
The calf feels only moderately damaged at the moment, so I’m going to rest it up today & tomorrow then see how it feels on Monday. If it’s not too bad, I’ll go back out for a very slow 30 mins. If that can be managed, then we might still be go for the 21st April.
To be this close, with so much effort put in and having to withdraw at this point would, I think, crush me.
Went out for a 30 minute tester this morning.
Some soreness, some tightness, definitely a calf tear. However, the running didn’t feel bad at all so long as I could keep my ankle relatively stable.
So plan of action is to reduce the mileage on the training plan, and to revise my planned finish time, but to push forwards with the training at the same frequency for now.
I’m meant to be doing 20-22 miles this Saturday, and I’m going to replan the route to stay as close to my parents’ house as possible. That way, if anything does go wrong, I can bail out easily instead of being half the county away.
Can you do a figure of 8 type route with your parents in the ‘middle’ of the 8? I found that worked when recovering from injury as no point was too far from home.
I’ll be doing a route that’s nearby, but a figure of 8 would require me to keep crossing an exceptionally busy bypass road.
My parents have no issue picking me up if needed anyhow, no matter how far out I go. I’m just staying close so that I can walk back if possible instead, as I don’t much like putting them out - especially as my dad isn’t yet fully recovered from his hospital episode.
These 0500 gym sessions have been absolutely ragging me the past couple of weeks.
At least I don’t need an alarm to wake up for them anymore…
The farmer’s bird scarer starting up at 0615 is bad enough - although being light-operated it should get a little later with the clocks changing at the weekend.
I’m really relieved to say that, so far, I’ve been back on my normal training plan following the calf issue without any further complaints. Hopefully that’s it, and the net result is one missed long run.
Saturday is the final long run of this training block, then I’m officially into the taper. 3 weeks to go as of Sunday coming!
And now the taper can begin.
This morning was the final long run of the plan, which was meant to be 32km. Started out well, but just didn’t feel right when I reached the city, so knocked it on the head 7km early.
Actually kind of proud of myself for stopping. I can really suffer from carryonitis and end up damaging myself, so to choose to put the race ahead of the individual run is a step-up from me.
3 weeks tomorrow until race day. I’m now targeting my Bronze (rather than Gold) objective; just finish and try not to walk. Silver is beat my 2018 attempt’s time (5 hours 19 mins) and Gold is a sub-4 hour finish.
- just finish
- beat last attempt
- sub 4 hours
Also reflecting that 6 months ago I was a proper fat [appropriate descriptive word] who could barely complete a 5k in under 35 minutes. Blowing my own trumpet, but proud of the consistency I’ve kept to and the improvement that’s made.
Thanks John!
I’m still alive, so that’s something! I also landed a medal, so that’s something else. And it turns out that my work were hosting a party for our fundraisers and I’ve blagged my way in, getting a free massage in the process plus my first alcoholic drink in months - so that’s something else!
I was a little disappointed with the run, but only because it fell apart through Canary Wharf and I had to stop a couple of times to sort out my back. Finished in 4 hours 54 minutes overall, but had hoped for closer to 4:30 at the beginning of the event.
That said, it’s still a PB by 25 minutes… I’ll take it… for now.
Awesome work! I know you were worried with an injury a while back, so this is awesome to see!
You managed 25 miles more than I’ve ever run 
PB is a PB mate. Massive congrats!
I think you’re all quite right; I’m letting myself be disappointed with a couple of the set backs (I had to walk parts of the course and stop to stretch off my back more than once) and not taking into account that I still hit my silver goal - at one point, just after Canary Wharf, bronze felt a long way off.
Good effort!
As others have already said, a PB is a PB.
feet up for a few days then find the next one 
Put me to shame…ive only been out of bed about 6 hours
I’m genuinely touched by how much you’ve all involved yourselves in this - I’m just a randomer who (as of last week) isn’t even part of RAFAC anymore.
Thank you. It’s a nice community we have here.
Parkrun; smashed it this morning (unexpectedly).
Still feeling a bit tender, so wasn’t going to go out too quickly. Ended up finishing with my best result in over 6 years; 22:29.
14s quicker and it would have been an all-time personal best. Not bad for a week after 42km.
