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Back to MAF
Since my last mini post, I've recovered, run the Berlin marathon, took time off my feet, picked up training and started getting really fit, ran the Wokingham half and promptly got injured again, this time it's my right hip—same issue as February last year— and had to pull out of the London marathon for the second year in a row 😞.
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I somehow hurt my left hip at the beginning of February and haven’t been able to do much exercise since. It’s still too tender to run but I have this week found I can row without upsetting it but cycling is definitely an aggravator. This isn’t too surprising as 25spm is a lot less hip action than 90rpm but it does make me think… have I just succumb to my first ever cycling injury (that didn’t involve road rash or being run over)? I upped the intensity with a new training plan on TrainerRoad this year so maybe things aren’t quite right with my setup and I need a bike fit 🤔
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Race Report: New York Marathon 2022
As with the Chicago marathon, all the stars finally aligned and I was able to take up my COVID 🦠 deferred 2020 New York marathon place this year and finally ticked off marathon major number five. The race itself was fantastic, but the bonkers climate killed any plans of another fast race for me and just helped confirm that I'm still really 💩 at running hot humid marathons without, what is now a “tradition”, a spectacularly massive overheating detonation. But I beat Galen Rupp who 💥 sooner and worse than me 😁
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Woohoo!! 🎉 My name got drawn for next year’s Berlin marathon. I can redeem myself for my one and only other performance in 2016. I’ve also got confirmation my 2020 London championship entry will be rolled over to 2023—I’ll be doing the general start as I’ve not got a qualifying time and I can’t use my runs from this year for a Good For Age entry as Chicago was after the qualifying period.
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Race Report: Chicago Marathon 2022
After having to defer my entry for two years on the trot thanks to COVID 🦠, I was glad to finally get the chance to take up my 2020 Chicago marathon place this year. I'd have loved to have run it in 2020 when I'd originally entered in 2019 as I was flying then and in brilliant shape and chasing another sub-2:45 marathon. However, I'm glad I didn't get the chance as it wouldn't have been a very comfortable or enjoyable affair due to the lower leg pain that appeared in October in 2019 that had persisted right up until the early part of this year. Going into this race build-up, I was fearful I'd end up having to hobble Chicago this year, but thanks to a change in my diet, fueling and training plan, I managed a good solid training build-up, without any pain, and went into the marathon in great shape.
The race itself was brilliant and went way better than expected resulting in a sub-3 (and thus BQ and London GfA), my second fastest marathon major, my fastest marathon as a V40, and sixth fastest of all time.
I'm trying something new with this race report by borrowing inspiration for the format from race reportr which is used to generate the reports peeps write on r/AdvancedRunning on Reddit to try and add a bit more structure and uniformity to my reports in future. Read on for all the gory details on my training and the race itself.
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I’m happy to announce I’m officially back to my proper running ways and it feels great!! No more leg pains 🥳 I’ve run four times this week and covered 86km without any issues. Today’s long run of 36km was glorious. I’ve also cycled 133km this week 😁 so this combo is defo working. I’m starting to think my leg pains were due to RED-S (yes, it affects men too though not as severely as women) as the biggest change I’ve made recently is to start fuelling my runs and rides. No more low carb exercising for me, so much so I’m now even pushing my gut for maximum consumption per hour without making a mess of myself.
The Chicago and New York marathons this year are on target to be very enjoyable, though now very fast. Maybe I’ll be back to good-for-age fitness in time for London next year.
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Experienced my first ever RTA on my 🚲 yesterday, 1 hr into a planned 3 hr ride. Thankfully it was a slow moving one which only resulted in a bendy wheel and nothing else. I was mostly 🤬 because I couldn’t finish my ride and have my planned toasty at Velolife. New 🛞 in the 📮
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New Bike Day: Dolan Tuono Disc Carbon
Thursday was a very exciting day for me… it was new bike day!!! My first new bike for over 10 years and it's a beauty.
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Tomorrow is new bike day!!! It’s my first new bike in over 10 years. It’s also my first full carbon bike. I’m so excited 🤗 #MilkingCycle2WorkScheme
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Feeling big time FOMO sitting in The Nag’s Head (my fav pub) in Reading watching peeps hobble about after today’s Reading half 😢
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My old age is forcing me to be less of a runner and more of a “mostly low impact athlete that does a bit of running”. I’ve ordered a new bike on the Cycle2Work scheme and a turbo for in the garage when it gets too chilly to ride on the roads. All to go with the rower I bought last year.
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Finished my first ever 100k week of rowing today. It was all done as steady-state at 18-20spm limiting my HR to 145bpm so very much in the easy cardio “UT2” zone. I really enjoyed this experiment and may do it again soon. I’ll be rewarding myself with a run tomorrow.
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