Jasysus smurf, that's a hard station - it's not like you haven't been givng it a decent effort. The killer is when your tried and trusted rehab methods and your tried and trusted physios are not able to deliver progress.
Update on my side since Copenhagen HM – increasing the mileage continues – am on approx 65 miles per week last week and this week. So far, the increase has been steady and there have been some strong runs – coincidentally, two them in Dublin – the 12-miler I posted last week and a 16.5-miler encompassing the second half of the DCM course yesterday morning. I also got a good 22-miler done in Cork on Sunday – 15 over hills followed by 6 at HM followed by a 1 mile warmdown.
Last week, this week and the fortnight following are the key hardest weeks for DCM – they are the final four weeks before the taper and are the weeks where you get the volume done, the iron comes into the legs and, in theory, your marathon pace solidifies into something you can deliver in steady state. I dunno if it’s age or what but I am finding this phase a lot tougher than previous campaigns. I’m fierce tired a lot of the time and any sort of decent MP is not sustainable – out of breath, HR too high, etc.
In fairness, the Achilles meant that I didn’t get to do this four-week block for Boston this Spring and the last decent campaign before that was for DCM 2019, where I was definitely in better shape. So, it’s been a while since I had any decent data to compare. However, over the last few days the left groin has started to get sore (even while running) and the Achilles is making a return to the injury front line too.
When you’re stuck in the middle of a high-commitment training program, it’s really hard to back off. Mileage is everything and you have this morbid fear that if you ease off at all you’ll go to the start line undercooked and crash out at 16 miles. So, I’ll have to pretend that I’m reading this as posted by another poster and then I think I’ll have to probably advise that fictitious other runner to cool it and drop the mileage for a while. There’s lads can bang out 80+ miles per week steadily through a campaign but it looks like I’m still not (and will never be!) one of them.
