Sunday 21 October 2012

Next stop Sacramento

The California International Marathon is on December 2nd. With some 8,000 runners, it'll be the biggest race I've taken part in. The end of October is usually down time until training begins in January for spring races. In a sense then I'm not looking forward to the next 5 sundays of 24, 28, 30, 32 and 30k. I know however that it'll be worth it for race day, and if I waited until Dec 31 for the ritual of the Resolution Run 5k, I'll be chewing the sofa for want of a race. 
 
The Grizzly Ultra gave my quads such a thrashing on the downhills that it looked like I might end up nursing myself to the startline a little like the Calgary Marathon at the end of May. Right at the top of the hip flexors I could feel a pulling, which is very pronounced when doing a lunge. My chiropractor seemed concerned, and told me to come back in just 2 weeks.
It seems that this trouble is slowly fading though. My first yoga session after the Grizzly worked very well to getting the flexability back. I've avoided any hill work, and take any downward gradient with very short steps. Instead of making wednesdays and fridays long intervals and marathon tempos, I've made them both marathon tempos. The reduction in speed, i.e. the elimination of the long intervals, has helped as well. It might also help in slowing me down at the start and not running at 10k pace in giddy excitement.
The giddy excitement is coming from the Gopro Hero 3 camera I just ordered. The hope is that my headcam vids, an extra passion of mine, will look less earthquaky. I aim to use it as a general camcorder too, helps justify the cost. I am calling it an early Christmas present, though a PB on December 2 would be the real gift.

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