Running

Is there a forum approved HM improvers plan?

Looking at trying to match my current marathon PB albeit on a much more challenging course in early October, and a HM PB attempt in early July seems like a nice mid point. Should give me 12 weeks of a HM plan, a week off, and 12 weeks of a marathon plan - daft idea?

If you like dates, cut them open, take out the stone and stuff them with peanut butter. :chefskiss:

All the plans on the marathon handbook site seem pretty good. I'm sure they'll have one that fits (then you can decide to drop one run per week because you're mad busy and chop out three weeks because your event is sooner than the end of the plan would be 😬)

As ^^^^
Sub 18 5k is definitely there if you’re doing 2:53 marathons as solo runs
Do you run with a club at all? Assembly League will be pretty local for you and have a handful of a decent quality but low key 3.5mi races through summer. I’ve run 5k a little quicker as part of those than I have in a Parkrun. Your sort of pace too, ~17:30 5k

Ah nice! I’ll look into that - would actually love to join a club but this is very much a thing I fit in around life and often end up running late at night etc.
Will definitely look into Assembly League though. 17:50 would be a dream!

I run for Eton Manor (well used to) who are in Leyton. They definitely do the Assembly League, and also the MET League in the winter. Bit of a distance from Manor Park though

I've just had a steroid injection into the sheath of my tendon in my ankle. Four weeks rest!

Has anyone else got any experience of steroid injections?

No but I’m thinking it might be what I need.

4 weeks of rest might be what kick-starts my recovery.

I'll let you know how it goes

Was it guided by ultrasound?

Mo Farah?

Yeah it was. My tendon was lighting up like a Christmas tree every time my heart beat. It looked pretty cool, but it shouldn't have looked like it.

It took maybe 10 mins from taking my shoes off to putting them back on again

Any blister experts? Deep into maranoia and did my last "session" yesterday in my new metaspeeds. I tried some thicker socks and it's created a slight hot spot on the outside of the little toes. I always assumed thicker socks would provide more padding and less likely to cause a blister.

I will revert back to thinner socks for marathon but should I go belt and braces and use a toe protector or some sort of plaster or could this have knock on affects?

Double socks over thicker socks seems to be the prevailing wisdom if you are getting blisters. But if single thin socks has been working I wouldn’t be messing with it late in the day

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Also where you describe is likely fairly awkward place for a blister plaster. I’d use a compeed if anything. But decent chance it comes off and then is really annoying forcing you to take shoe and sock off to fix and you’d still have to run with or withoit

Vaseline, double socks, check inside the shoes to see if there are likely seams that rub. If so taping over them with gaffer tape can smooth out the seams as well

how old are the shoes? Would you be willing to cut a tiny hole in the fabric which rubs against your little toe?

https://fellrnr.com/wiki/File:AltShoeMod1.jpg

it's the friction that causes the blister though rather than the impact, so I think thicker socks are a bit more likely to wrinkle or bunch a bit
to completely echo ^^^, twin skin socks rather than just thick ones, but if thinner socks are working for you then I wouldn't change things close to a race
(Hilly Twin Skin is what I've used before)

@pifko bold move cutting a hole in new £200+ super shoes

Aha, I missed the fact they're new metas. TBH I wouldn't be breaking in a new pair less than a week before a mara...

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

@Tenderloin I was tempted by a compeed but hadn't thought about how annoying it would be if it came off or unseated so will probably give it a miss.

@Alf0nse I like the idea of vaseline, I'll give that a go later in the week with the thinner socks. I'm tempted to start wearing them around the house with different combinations of sock/ vaseline etc

@pifko brand new and not sure it would work in the little toe area, I've already destroyed a pair of alphafly 1removing the inner soles trying to make them more comfortable, I only partly succeeded there!

I echo the not fixing something that isn’t broken. I used the same socks and shoes I planned to run in for every long run from about 6 weeks out from my first marathon….and then I bought the same pair of shoes half a size bigger in the expo the day before and ran in them (I was fine and they were more comfortable)

As they say, nothing new on race day.

It should heal and harden until the weekend but stick to thin socks and maybe a dab of Vaseline on your little toe.
Even if you’re in a bit of pain 30km in, just disregard it and think how great you’ll feel at the end.

Out of interest, are these the new Paris Metaspeeds?

I've got the metaspeed edge paris and I absolutely love them. Other than the slight hot spot it barely feels like you are wearing them and they really seem to propel you along. My favourite super shoe to date.

My buddy has bone spurs and cuts holes in his shoes