Aches and pains- Dublin City marathon training.

After the marathon relay

•  Tuesday July 5th Trails and Hills 8km at 41:19.

• Wednesday July 6th easy road run 12km at 1:14:31

• Friday July 8th  21km easy cycle laps.

• Sunday July 10th easy 25km at 2:29:23.

After the marathon relay I was on a runners high for a couple of days but I was quickly brought crashing down to earth with a bang when I realised just how tired and sore my legs were.

 As my Inferno coach was taking part in the Frankfurt Ironman (genius or mad man?) I took a much needed rest day on Monday, stocked up on vitamins, recovery powder and ALL the healthy food in Molloys Lifestyle Pharmacy and promised myself that I would look after every niggle now that I am up to 26km.

Tuesday I went down to the track to do an easy 5km to stretch out my legs after my long running weekend, however I was persuaded (COERCED )  into doing all the trail hills in the woods, once the group decided to do the back road at Carrakelly I left them off, my legs were aching and I was physically drained.

My increased muscle pain in my legs lead me to wonder if I needed new runners, my handy dandy Asics Nimbus 15s had proved me well over the last 7 months, I had never suffered an injury and apart from the few aches and a couple of damaged and lost toenails they were still comfy and felt great to run in. I took the plunge and ordered the Asic Nimbus 18s, the science behind them was interesting but in the end it was the glitter that sold me! I am weary of breaking them in as the other ones took ages and I distinctly remember every blister and cut on the back of my heels I suffered with the 15s.

I am lucky to work right beside some great running routes and even luckier that we have shower facilities to use so I headed out on Wednesday morning before work to do a nice easy 12km with a friend. My legs were aching for most of the run but I knew that running on tired legs was something I had to get use to, however after the run and all day I felt a sharp ache from my glute all the way down to my heel on my right foot, I popped some Ibuprofen but it didn't seem to dull it, later that night trying to sleep with it was a nightmare. I resigned to take a couple of rest days.

Occasionally on Friday nights I had taken to doing the Liquid Motion Time Trials but I decide to go out a bit earlier and do the 3 laps before the TT. I have discovered I am NOT  a great cyclist and my time is not improving that much but once the crazy competitive side is out of it I do actually enjoy cycling. The rain and wind was not much of a help, but the biggest challenge was actually trying to convince myself to complete all 3 laps, sometimes it really is all in the mind.

On Sunday I was doing my long run with Celine, we planned on 24km,  doing the same 8km loops from the marathon relay. We were conscious that we had taken off too fast in the relay so we tried  slowing it down for at least the first 2 loops, despite some rain showers and the pizza truck parked tauntingly on the Killala road it was enjoyable. Keeping a slower pace was the hardest I automatically want to go at my comfort speed. I had to finish the last 8km alone as Celines' new runners had given her giant blisters (does not bode well for my new runners ), I was definitely running the last 3km of the woods in the fastest time as it was getting dark and my mums "weirdos in the woods" comments were ringing in my ears! I finished by going the long way around by the pond and up through the trails to bring me to 25km finish at 2:49:23. My legs were aching almost instantly and my wet shoes had cause a few new blisters but I was happy with the time considering our pace had been so much slower than the relay.