Weekly Update w/e 12.02.12 - 10wks to VLM12

Total mileage (running) - 0 miles
Total training time (stationery bike) - 4hrs 7mins, from 4 x sessions

Oh dear. This week hasn't gone at all to plan. Although, I guess there is at least a slightly comical irony to the best week of the build-up so far being immediately followed by the worst.

My calfs were ridiculously tight on Monday after the weekend's running, but I'd planned a rest day anyway so thought nothing of it. But when I tried to run on Tuesday morning, I came to a halt after just a few strides with a fairly fiery pain in my right calf. I was a bit surprised, but I didn't worry too much, just got on the stationery bike and did some of that instead. I had sports massage booked Wednesday evening anyway. Tony (my Physio) gave the calf a good working over, and various poking around and thorough stretching didn't seem to unearth anything particularly worrying.

When my planned Thursday run started and finished as quickly as my Tuesday one, I did throw my toys out of the pram a little bit. It took me that afternoon to calm down and get my head round the fact that this was going to mean at least one complete week of lost running. Since that point, I have hit the cross-training with some enthusiasm and I have, thankfully, felt the calf improving day-by-day since. I can't feel it at all now except for a tightness still when I'm stretching it, but I've been doing the strengthening exercises Tony suggested and I feel pretty confident now that it will be good to go tomorrow. I even did a test run up and down my road before going to the gym earlier and everything felt nice and solid with no pain, so definitely looking good.

The coming week on the plan is lighter in terms of mileage than most because it leads up to the Wokingham Half. As long as I can get back to steady running ok this week, I'm still going to do the race. It feels less likely that it'll be the full blooded form-test that I had planned, but I'm still keen to run it as a marathon-pace run or something similar if that feels more sensible come next Sunday.
So hopefully, tomorrow night's first-run-back will go well and I can put this week behind me. 10 wks to go still is ages. As long as I can get back to running this week, I'm not worried... ; )

WEEKLY MILEAGE SO FAR: 53, 70, 43, 61, 73, 48, 63, 0