A mixed bag

My left calf is still not quite right and in hindsight the waterfront 10km I did last Thursday was too fast too soon. Weird thing was it felt quite good at the time. Maybe I aggrevated it elsewhere? Maybe I'm getting old?

I didn't run this week - rest and a number of walks - but I did go for a short "confidence" run today (in the rain and hail no less!).

3.64km / 17:05 / 4:41min/km and got through it with no pain although I can tell its not 100%. Running pain free was the acid test about running tomorrow.

Run Auckland 3 tomorrow morning on a dead flat course. I don't intend to break any land speed records or my PB here - my aim is to get through without aggrevating things. If it looks like it is starting to play up I'll fall back to slow jogging or walking.

The weather is supposed to be wet and miserable so that'll make it interesting. Will be telling myself "not to run fast" which is a bit ironic.

Pretty frustrating to be honest.

On the plus side I've started back on a core excercise program at home with a number of "challenges". Last year I started the one-hundred-pushup online program got part of the way through - I think my best was 52 - but frankly got discouraged when it got tough. Come marathon time that sort of attitude isn't going to help much so it is also an excerise in perseverance.

This time I'm going to give it another shot with its cousins two hundred situps and two hundred squats programs. Having a strong core should help with posture and stability.

Pushups: Completed Week 3/Day 3.
Situps: Completed Week 1/Day 2 (my situp ability is sorely lacking)
Squats: Haven't started this yet but will be doing Week 1/Day 1 from Monday.

For those that don't live in New Zealand you got to feel for Steven O'Callaghan who stumbled at the finish of the recent Rotorua marathon. The elite althletes certainly look lean and mean.