Marathon girl - Week #13

Day #7 - rehearsal run

Distance: 9.52 miles*
Time: 01:19:42 hours
Average speed (per mile): 08:22 minutes

It still doesn't seem quite real that this time next week I'll be pounding the streets of London (probably somewhere around Docklands) with 20,000 other runners and a horde of spectators. It'll be very different from today's run where the main noise (aside from the cars on the A44) was that of the madly twittering skylarks over the fields.

The rehearsal didn't quite go to plan in that I forgot (until it was too late) that I was meant to be having pasta for dinner(!) and I really fancied cornflakes instead of porridge this morning (it's fine though - they're pretty much tried and and tested pre-race fare by now). And I don't think my race day preparation will consist of dozing on the sofa whilst watching the Chinese Grand Prix (go Jensen!).

The main thing is that my calf muscle which was feeling very sore on Wednesday and Thursday held up really well. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the severe workout which Chris at back2best sports massage gave it on Friday evening but it can't have hurt. Hang on, let me rephrase that. It can't have done any harm. It actually hurt quite a lot. Chris warned me at the beginning of the session that he'd be going beyond my tolerances and I'm very proud that I only told him to back off twice. Partly because I take this sort of thing as a sort of personal challenge (I'm a bit bloody minded if truth be told) and partly because there's no point in paying for a deep tissue sports massage if you're going to keep telling the guy to stop because it hurts a bit ;-)

I feel a lot happier about my calf now than I did last week. Now there's just a bit more light training, total abstinence from alcohol (can someone please remind me about this at the pub on Wednesday!), and my kit to get ready for next Sunday.

* it was meant to be 10 miles but MapMyRun.com keeps changing its mind about how far away the canal is. I swear it was 5 miles away the last time I measured it but today it's just 4.76.