Ultra Training Week 2 Retrospective

Training Breakdown

• Monday - Rest day
• Tuesday - 11k base run
• Wednesday - 10k hard hilly trail run
• Thursday - 11k base run
• Friday - Rest day
• Saturday - Marathon & route recon
• Sunday - Rest day

Thoughts & Challenges

Replacing Hill Reps for the Ironwood

Wednesday was meant to be a hill rep session; however I've been putting in a lot of verticality lately on the Cotswold Way long runs so it felt like overkill.  Instead I replaced the session with the Ironwood 10k; a solid trail run with plenty of hills to it.

Marathon & Route Recon

The original plan had a 32k run Saturday followed by a 15k Sunday; I swapped this out for my monthly marathon and used it as an opportunity to do a bit of scouting along the Summer Green Man route.

The top section of the run is part of the Community Forest Path, it was great to get some exposure to what the terrain will be like on the day.

Was originally going to go out the following day to make up the weekly mileage, however that leads me nicely onto the final point...

Extensor Tendonitis

Tuesday and Wednesday I hadn't experienced any swelling when using the KT Tape and the tendonitis felt like it was getting better and better. I ended up not using any tape Thursday as a test and was pleasantly surprised I didn't have any issues.

However if I was a smarter person I'd have still taped up for the Marathon, instead I risked it and, lo and behold, it was back by the 30km mark.

What I gather happened is that it was well on the way to healing, but I hadn't given it long enough to fully recover before removing the tape. It was swollen all weekend and I've gone back to RICE + KT Tape for this weeks training.  Will do so consistently until at least 3 weeks have passed.

At least I've got a clear cut way to prevent it worsening, I just need to be more patient with the recovery.  Onwards & upwards!