Marathon training beat smoking by Sharon_Dooley

I still think of yo all just don't get the time to go catch up on blogs etc I've been busy learning to run better using Pose technique, I smashed all of my goals (10k 48.27, half 1.52 5k 24.05) other than marathon (that's another story) and loved what it gave me sooo much  that I qualified as a level 1 coach so I could pass it on....I've gained so much in coaching other people, delighting as they improve but also learning so much more about me and my running in the process....at the end of January I was at my fittest, I felt invincible and was aiming for sub 4hr marathon but thinking I could aim for 3hr40 everything was going so well, I had places in Brighton and London and was confident I could do both, then 10 miles into an 18 mile run at the end of January I felt pain in the 4th and 5th metatarsals of my left foot, I tried to carry on running but my ankle locked up and it felt like the arch of my foot collapsed and I could barely walk on it let alone run! thankfully I was running with a big bunch of friends and two of them got me back to my car, I took a week off, hopping about on the right foot and waiting for it to feel better, it felt slightly better by the following weekend & I was assisting at a coaching clinic but I was kidding myself about being able to run, the chap who I was assisting was a GP who specialised in sports injury so by the Sat evening when I'd proved I couldn't run on it, I let him look at it - Mortons Neuroma/metatarsalgia, two weeks of no running but ok to go ski-ing...damn but I can run the second week of the ski trip so I take my shoes with me, I try a run half way through the second week, I spend two more days hobbling, another week off and I do my local 5k park run, it hurts half a mile in but I ignore it and carry on, then do 2 miles the next day, it hurts some more, then do 2 miles on the treadie, my calf siezes up and I book physio as I can't tolerate the pain anymore...lots of laser and massage that feels like she's trying to pinch my bones and the foot, well that's just like an electric shock the nerves are sooo peed off...she straps a cushion onto the bottom of my foot and says if we can get me running within a fortnight I can do a short taper but do both marathons...I am told to rest and roll by foot on a golf ball & it should hurt, a week later it's starting to get better, more phsyio and I'm allowed a 30-40min run, and a tentative ok to Fleet half if you're prepared not to race and to walk at any time...I complete Fleet in 2hr06 with a mile and a half walking but later that day it's v. sore again...not back to square one but sulking big time...more physio more short runs, more pain, Cranleigh 15 poss 21 actually 12 with 3 miles walking and time on feet of 2hr48 worse than when I first ran it 4 years ago and I am back to hopping...Brighton's gone but I'm still positive for London, Physio makes me feel sick the next day and I take a week off running, then looking at a video I did just before cranleigh work out that I've been compensating and landing on the outside of my foot which is why it's not getting better, so I practise the drills I've learned and been teaching and focus all day on where I'm taking the weight through my feet, next run is a lot better and it continues getting better but still tension, tightness but improving, I get in three 10-12 mile runs before London and lots of short fast reps. I fly the first 16 miles of London (half way in just under 2hrs) then the wheels come off and I focus on posture and picking feet up for the last 10 but I finish a minute quicker than Dublin marathon and get a new pb by only a minute but have learned that I am lots quicker, can do a much quicker marathon, need to run my best every time I run rather than going through the motions and let myself find out just what I am capable of rather than setting ceilings on my goals.

So this year is now about finding out what this body will allow me to do and I'm going to enjoy finding out....

Off to catch up on what you lot have been up to