Sometimes you just have to say no!

After the great run I had on Sunday at Brighton Half Marathon, tonight I have had to say NO to training! Which is a shocker normally I will train through anything, however I picked up an injury at the weekend which has put a dent in my marathon training, well for tonight anyway.

Now I can hear you mentally ticking off the different kinda of injuries that I could have picked up running a half marathon….

• Achilles NO
• Ankle NO
• Quads  NO
• Hamstring NO
• Glutes NO
• Blisters (clutching at straws now) NO

Actually it is not a running injury at all it is a SLEEPING injury…..now you never hear anyone

telling you’re the dangerous of sleeping do you?  No one comes up to you and says 

“you know that sleeping is really bad for you, you can get a crick in your neck or really bad bed hair” but that is what happened.

The weather in Brighton was brilliant blue skies and full sunshine meant that the crowds were out in force and in fine voice. The starting pens had a positive buzz everyone thanking there lucky stars that the wind and driving rain had taken the day off.

My half marathon plan was to run easy and use it as a marathon pace training run, so 8:20’s per mile.  So I set off with pace in my head and for the most part I was able to stick to it. I felt good and comfortable for all of my run and that was real boost to my confidence. My average pace was 8:13 (so slightly quicker than target but I was happy and confident that I didn't race it).

Roll on to Monday morning, I woke up with a shooting pain in my neck and I couldn't get myself up! Everything from the neck down was peachy but I was unable to get out of bed without help, all down to sleeping funny! No one warns you about that :(

Well one painful trip to my sports injuries guy on Monday night, I have 70% more movement now but it is still really painful, so much so that although I started on my long reps training session tonight, I had to knocked it on the head and come home.

I could have tried to push through the pain and carry on with the reps but sometimes you just have to say no, I could have made it worse or picked up another injury which would stop me running for longer. 

It is difficult when you are in the middle of marathon training to say no to a training session but sometimes it is the sensible thing to do.  Today I have had to give that advice to a friend training for London and for once I have practiced what I preached!

Tomorrow is another day and fingers crossed that taking tonight off will mean I will be back sooner rather than later. 

and the prize winner is......parkrun

Whoop Whoop parkrunner of the month awarded to yours truly, what a lovely surprise.  

And now for my thank you speech, I would like to start off by saying thank you ........ well mainly #parkrun for giving me and everyone a FREE, WEEKLY, TIMED RUN....not a race.  parkrun and extended parkrun community you have helped my to 

a) improve my running 
b) make loads of new friends 
c) help me to be volunteer 
d) buy new trainers 
e) buy new running kit 
f) eat cake on a Saturday before 10am and not feel guilty 
g) stopped me drinking too much on a Friday night
h) appreciate the local parks in my area
i) have more time on Saturday, run (coffee and cake) all home before 11am
j) wear more fancy dress 
k) improve my hill running (have to look strong and encourage everyone else on)
l) nearly be a funnel chucker 
m) get to use my laminater (clutching at straws now)
n) have a taster of cross country with our muddy patches
o) improved my down hill run (getting desperate) 
q)when incorporated as part of my long run, helped me to push that little bit harder at the end of a run
r)  have I had shoes/ what about running kit..........

ok I am sure that there will be a load more of ways that I will think that parkrun has helped me over the past 2 years, but for now I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to parkrun UK and especially parkrun Hanley