Progress… Then Football - Sub-3 on 3 Runs: Week 10
Week 10 started exactly how you want a week to start.
Momentum.
Monday kicked things off with a really solid strength session. Nothing crazy again, just good quality work in the gym and the feeling that the body is actually beginning to tolerate training again. That’s been one of the slow burners through this whole project, slowly rebuilding durability so the work doesn’t feel like it’s constantly pushing against a ceiling.
Tuesday’s run was probably the most encouraging session I’ve had for quite a while. A progressive ten-mile run where the pace gradually built through the middle miles, with a couple of longer pushes inside it. Toward the end of the run I ended up knocking out a 5k segment in just under 20 minutes.
For most runners that might not sound particularly exciting, but for me it was the first time in a long while that I’ve actually run reasonably strong and felt reasonably in control while doing it. Not hanging on, not forcing it, just moving well.
That was a good sign.
Later in the week i had sceduled in an athlete group tempo session on the bike. It was good to work with the team. Sessions like that are useful for more than just fitness,they sharpen the atmosphere, keep everyone honest, and add a bit of shared energy to the work. It was an early start, but well worth it. Good amount of work without it being silly at 05:45 ! Plus the sort of session that reminds you how much easier work can feel when you’re doing it with other people.
That session rolled straight into a social run later the same day just under 16km at an easy pace. Probably a bt faster than i would have gone solo but it was nice to respond to it well, the legs felt good and for the first time in a while there was a sense that actual fitness might be starting to return.
Those are the weeks where you start thinking:
Right… maybe this stupid plan might actually come together.
Then the weekend arrived.
And I decided that playing instead my 90 min aerobic low loading bike ride i would try - 90 minutes of football instead …what a brilliant idea.
Football is one of those sports I’ve always loved. If I’m honest, it’s probably the sport I’m naturally best at out of anything I’ve done. But there’s also the small problem that I’m now 45, and my last full season was around 2004 ! Despite that inconvenient fact I still seem to think I’m 25 when I step onto a pitch.
Unfortunately, the rest of the players don’t share that nostalgia.
About 5 minutes from the end of the game some slightly un mobile chap came crashing through the back of my Achilles with a all he had. The result was a fairly sizeable whack to the back of the leg and, unsurprisingly, that pretty much put an end to any long-run plans for Sunday or being able to walk much at all.
To be fair, the long run might have been difficult anyway after 90 minutes of football my quads were not happy either.
But the Achilles knock sealed it.
Just to round the weekend off nicely, I also managed to tweak my back on Sunday. Doing nothing much, but enough to remind me that the body occasionally likes to keep me humble.
So Week 10 ended up being a bit of a damp squib.
The frustrating part is that the start of the week genuinely felt like progress. The run on Tuesday, the group ride, the social run, all signs pointing in the right direction.
And then football happened.
Still, that’s part of the reality of trying to build fitness around real life. Not everything fits neatly into a training plan, especially when you’re stubborn enough to keep playing the sports you enjoy alongside marathon training.
The priority now is simple: recover, let the Achilles and back settle, hopefully a few days is enough to get the back moving again, and try to stitch the plan back together.
Preferably before next Saturday…
…when I’m apparently playing football again. :)
Si
