“Try to run faster,” he said.
Run faster? Run FASTER!
I looked at my physio bewildered – unfortunately I have one of those faces which is unable to hide my true thoughts.
He explained that if I ran faster I wouldn’t get so much pain in my shin as my feet would spend less time on the ground.
I guess it made sense, but I knew I couldn’t maintain a long distance sprint.
Again he read my unconvinced facial expression and explained I could take 20 second walk breaks whenever I wanted.
Week Seven
He said that during cardio exercise there’s a 20 second window when you can stop and it doesn’t have an impact on training.
Okay, I thought, like intervals.
“Just do intervals” he said, almost echoing my inner monologue.
I realised I’d been doing it all wrong.
As soon as I noticed my shin pain I’d rested, then began to run slowly, and cut intervals out of my training plan.
“Okay, I’ll give it a shot,” I said. But the reality was a lot harder than I imagined.
The next day I did a five mile run, interval style.
For the first mile or two I could only manage two minute bursts of running before taking a 20 second walk break due to stabbing pain in my left shin.
Interval running
After that I got up to around five minutes before walking, then for the last mile I was back down to two minute bursts.
On Tuesday I did a six mile run in the same way, and on both Thursday and Sunday I did 10 mile runs.
For the longer runs I used intervals to warm up for the first three miles, then dropped to a slow steady pace.
My leg actually felt ok during these runs but afterwards I struggled to put any weight on it, particularly the morning after.
All in all I’ve finished this week having run 31 miles.
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I’m running London Marathon 2016 to raise money for Alzheimer Scotland in aid of my gran who has dementia. Please sponsor me. All donations, no matter the size, extremely welcome via my fundraising page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SheanneMulholland
xxx THANK YOU!! xxx
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Sheanne 