So the last post was all good. A week to go until the Cheadle 5 mile road run race. The week was meant to be recover from Sunday conditioning with run strides incorporated session. Then bag a 15k easy long run on Wednesday. Finally get a hard(ish) bike session before a couple of easy endurance days. All that went wrong when I started to feel some hip pain on Tuesday. This pain came from nowhere. I was literally struggling to walk properly and get up stairs without clinging onto the banister. We’d essay felt a bit easier and I attempted some jog and strides instead of the planned LSR. But the pain was pretty bad still. Throughout Wednesday the pain eased. By Thursday it was virtually gone. I did a short bike easy spin and strides afterwards. Pain almost gone. Friday I played it safe and just bike 50 min with the pacer bot easy. Today (Saturday) I thought there is no point in completing a hard session; I’ll just warm up and call it a day to be fresh for the race tomorrow.
So oddly, I’ve just tapered - unplanned. I’m having all the normal taper feelings of ‘I’ve lost all fitness’. Or ‘I’ve missed key hard sessions’. But we’ll see how the race goes. I’ll either be fresh and run well; or stale and heavy legged. I do have a worry that this hip pain will reappear. So must be sensible and not push through any real pain.
Looking longer term, it’s now March and the key race for me on 28 May at Darley Moor Duathlon seems a lot closer. I want to make March a decent incremental month of training, seeing as this week has been a taper period. Any races in March must be training races with no ease down prior. First potential race is the Shrewsbury Sprint Duathlon on 19 March. If the weather holds I’ll enter.
Talking of the weather, the forecast for tomorrow is high chance of rain and 3 degrees 🫣. For a sun lover like me this is nit good. Plus I’m aware that the Nike Alphafly shoes I have are not meant to be good in the wet. I’ll need to be careful of slipping on sharp corners - nit sure I’ll be running fast enough to cause any slippage though 🤓.
Race time target? Well I clicked 31:10 at the Alsager 5 back in 2020. I felt awful in that race and got slower as the race progressed, even considering dropping out at one point. But looking back, the average pace of 3:50 per k wasn’t too bad; I just started too fast. Not sure how fast the Cheadle course will be but I’d like to go sub-31 min. If the track session the other week is a guide to go by I think I’m capable of this time but there are a few lumps and bumps on this course.
Check back for race report tomorrow then!
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