Week 7 & 8 Marathon Training Thoughts
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Hope 2026 has started off well for you all!
Had a little blog break over Christmas, but I’m back! However, although I had a lovely Christmas (I hope you did too!), I am not back with great running updates… Despite resting from running when ill, and hugely reducing my training volume when trying to get back into it, my achilles still isn’t happy! After Christmas I managed to do two little interval runs, as a walk-run type session. I ran no more than 2 minutes at a time but afterwards my achilles let me know it was still too much. So here are my thoughts regarding this:
Injuries can happen even if you feel you’ve done everything right
Sometimes there can be no rhyme or reason to getting an injury. I like to think I am a pretty sensible trainer. I know not to increase volume too quickly, I know I need rest days and deload weeks, I know I need sleep, and hydration, and fuel, I know I need strength training to supplement my running. Knowing I was going to be starting a marathon programme I slowly began to let my body get used to running, starting with once a week, then adding a second session in, and then very slowly building my weekly volume up. I built it up to run the festive 10km as a star, and I felt ready for it and good during the race. But for some reason, after that, my achilles flared and is refusing to go back down! I have suspicions it might be down to an incompatible running shoe to my body, but this is something that is hard to know when choosing shoes and might only show after a while of using them. Plus it hasn’t gone down since changing shoes but that might be because it’s too inflamed right now. So sometimes, we just have to accept that injuries are out of our control, an unfortunate part of sport, and something every athlete will likely go through at some point during their life.
Focus on what you can control rather than what you cannot
Accepting the injury itself is out of my control means I can try to let go of the “why” this happened, and focus on the “how” to help it recover. There is no point dwelling on what could have caused it (unless there is an obvious thing you can avoid or change for next time), that is a waste of energy because there’s nothing I can do about that now. What I CAN do is focus on my rehab programme, listening to my physio’s advice, try to strengthen my achilles and build my fitness in other ways without overloading the tendon. So I have decided to try and build my fitness up on the bike in the gym, whilst maintaining my rehab and strength work, and my physio has advised me on how much running I should be doing to prevent it getting worse. So my plan is to do this for the next 3 weeks and then reassess at that time point.
30 mins on the bike (whilst watching traitors! - multitasking at it’s finest ;))
What will be, will be
My challenge this week has been to try and accept that I might not be able to run the marathon in March. This doesn’t mean I have made a decision about it, but I am allowing myself to consider the possibility that it might not happen. Obviously I would be sad, frustrated and cross about this, and it’s ok to feel all those feelings. But I also know that getting my body strong and well is more important than pushing it too far when it is already not happy. I am not a full-time athlete. I don’t NEED to run this marathon for my job or for my country. I am doing it for fun, to challenge myself and to achieve something. This can all be done at a future timepoint where my body feels strong enough to do it. Accepting that what will be will be means I am prepared to make the decision to defer my entry if I really need to. But for now I am going to focus on the aforementioned plan, and cross that bridge of decision making when the time comes. I will keep you posted! Wish me luck!
I’ll leave you with a picture of me wearing my new running jacket which I love! I took this picture after running down a canal on new years day which was a lovely crisp winters day! Still smiling despite a very sore heel!
