Written by Babs Pinheiro
Ok, this time I didn't fall or sprain anything, I promise! I tried to be very careful but...
We are now within the 6 week window before the big day! Time is flying by! It's been over 2 weeks since the Lisbon Half and it took me a while to come down from that high. And since I don't do things in halves, I went from a massive high to a bit of a low. I wish I could be telling you all about my 20 miler that I did on Sunday but sadly my body has had other ideas!
Just after the Lisbon Half, I started to feel a niggle on my left Achilles heel and thought it was related to the mammoth effort of running a HM at a record pace. I took it easy that first week and managed to do most of my training, albeit at a pace that was much slower than I would have expected.
However, last week, my Achilles tendon decided that it was time to make me come to a stop and take the week off to recover. It was weird because I had more pain on my shin than I did on my tendon but the combo of both just had me perplexed. It was like my leg turned into cement when I tried to run.
Instead of doing around 70km, I did 18km, between 8k on Saturday and 10k on Sunday and I was sooo happy to do that much distance.
I'm fortunate to have access to private medical insurance through work and I'm now seeing a physio, who told me that it's definitely the tendon that isn't happy with the additional training.
I was hoping to avoid this, especially since I had a big goal for London BUT it doesn't mean that I'm not going to make the most of it. The poor physio probably hoped that I would have said that I'd stop running completely but instead told me to "run around the pain" (her words, not mine!!) and make sure that I don't push it so that I can actually run 42.2k in 6 weeks' time.
Training will need to be adjusted and I will put the big goal on the backburner for London and save it for my next Marathon. I don't know yet what I'll aim for when I run London on 27th April but one thing is certain, I'll be having a ball! I was thinking of something that Nick said when someone asked him what were the chances of me dropping out from running London after the ballot. Nick told them "Oh Babs, she'll drag herself through broken glass if she has to but she'll do it!". I think I'd rather avoid that painful experience but he's so right!
One reason why I know I'll do London regardless is because I'm doing a fundraiser on the side. I decided to fundraise for Mind Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow, one of our charities for this year. Mental health has been one of the club's focus over the years and especially after the pandemic and, since I got my place through the club, I thought I'd shake a few trees and see if people are willing to sponsor a crazy woman running the London Marathon for one of our charities. Did you know that we have a page on the website where you can fundraise/share the link to your fundraiser? Check it out! https://www.ealingeagles.com/charity/#individual
So, let's see what the next couple of weeks brings me! One thing is for sure, I'll be making friends with the ice packs all over again!
PS - Since Phil and I have been so in sync, I'm hoping that I'm the only one blogging about an injury!!