Injured again

This is kind of a neverending story. Until last week I was quite thinking of taking part to the Rome Marathon, in mid March, just to have it as a trial / long run. Now I abandoned that idea and I’m not even so sure about London either!

After a few weeks I was training well, a few days ago I started to feel some pain on my right foot. Now it got much worse and I’m currently limping when I try to run, sometimes even when I walk.

Diagnosis is plantar fasciitis, which I already had 3 years ago and I know very well.

The strange bit is that this time it took just a few days to come to this stage, where I can barely run. Now my only hope is to heal it ASAP!

Second week of training

This is what I could consider the second week of focused training, after about 1.5 months of just running.

Next Sunday I’ll take part to the first Cross Country race of the year, about 50km away from Trieste.It will be a long distance cross, thus just about 10km. In this week I’ve tried to schedule some training in order to be still kind of fresh on Sunday.

That was 3×2000 reps on Tuesday (which turned out to be 2×2000+1500 because of some nasty dogs on the path)  and 8x hill reps today, Thursday. I’ll have then another 2 days of easy run before the race.

My only concern, now, is to keep my groin healthy. Hopefully the physiotherapy is doing its job

Back to training

OK, I’ve been away for a few weeks, but that wasn’t cause I’m lazy, but just because I’ve been away from serious training for so long!
Fortunately the new year is bringing along some good news and, although my injury is not completely over, I feel much more comfortable with training and I could finally start with some speedworks.
I decided to try it in the last week of december. I started with some long hills, that turned out really well, and finished the year with a long fartlek session (1000 hard – 1000 easy).
After that, my first nice training with my best running mate, Mike, was on Wednesday: 10 by 400 meters, with a really short recovery in between. Great satisfaction, since it was possibly the first time I was running easier than him.
Yesterday, 6th of January, last official day off from work, I was left alone and made up my mind with an “easy” progression on the usual hilly loop of S.Andrea.
Today I’ve finally started my physiotherapy treatment, after about 1 month of doubtful diagnoses. This will last for the next 2 weeks, but hopefully I’ll be okay after that!
Tomorrow I’ll try out some longer reps (2000m). I’m really glad I can keep you updated again

Feeling okay

3 days after Milan Marathon, my legs are OK. The groin doesn’t hurt more than usual and I seem to be running okay.

Today I’ve done a double session, with some technique exercise at lunchtime (drills and circuit training) and an easy tempo run with a friend in the night (10k at 3′50/km).

I’m trying to figure out what training program I could start with, now that we’re 18 weeks apart from London Marathon. What I’m sure of, is I’ll have to enter in my weekly routine some anaerobic strength workout, such as circuit training (twice a week) and technique (once a week) I’ll plan it and post it ASAP!

Milan Marathon

OK, exactly after 3 years I’ve done another marathon, right the same as 3 years ago, and just about 20 mins slower.

http://www.sdam.it/pubblico/risultato.do?idRisultato=790711

I can’t say I’m very pleased by the result. The objective this time was “just” to join Giacomo in his sub 2h45 attempt, but thigs didn’t quite go as expected: everything was fine until the 20th km, when we were keeping a nice 3′50″ pace, with a 2h43 projection. Everything was perfect then, when Giacomo suddenly had to stop because of a seriously painful hip injury. I was at first astonished, I didn’t want to believe he was retiring while he was still looking so good.

Well, he was wise enough to retire almost immediately, and at that point I virtually resigned too, since there was no point anymore in going to the limits and risking to make my groin worse. As you can see from my race progression, after a good half marathon I started to go really slow, even walking on some bits and stopping to stretch my legs or to eat something. I have to admit it was the first time I eat so much during a race, but I didn’t really want to risk a hypoglycaemic attack!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=4542217The leg didn’t hurt too much though, therefore I hope to start with some reps this week. But I’ll probably wait another 2-3 days to see how my body will react to this strange race.

…ops I forgot to tell the result 2h52′18″

Going to Milan

To go, or not to go: this is the question!

Well, eventually I made up my mind and I’m going to meet Giulio and Giacomo in Milan. I hope I’ll be wise enough to stop if I feel something hurting, though I’ve never abandoned during any race and it could sound hard. Giacomo will try his PB on 2h45 pace, I’ll try hard to help him, while Giulio is injured and will be there just for some good wine. I’ve just spoken to them, Giacomo sounded relaxed enough to do a good race.

Yes, my left leg is still hurting, but not too much. It’s been almost 2 weeks by now, I’ve not done any strong workout since the last race. I really hope this Milan Marathon weekend will go nice and smooth, and possibly from Monday I’ll be able to start again with some good training.

This is just a hope… so let’s hope!

I’d better haven’t started yet

When I decided that my first day of training for the marathon had to be the past Sunday, I could hardly imagine it would have been such a pain in the ass! The purpose of this blog didn’t have to be “describe my injuries”!! Left leg is still hurting and I’m starting to have some doubt about taking part to Milan Marathon on 2.12. I’d love to, since I have to join Giacomo in his PB attempt, and I’ve also paid the fee, but no love and no fee can overcome my health!

I do really hope to post some training schedules, when I’ll finally decide them. For the moment it would still be nonsense and trying to stick to a workout plan could make me worse!

We’ll see what happens this weekend, with no work and more time to, hopefully, relax.

Bad luck is in the air

Situation isn’t getting better so far. After Sunday my left thigh has gone on hurting and is still preventing me from doing anything serious.

I’ve been running easily and steadily for the past 3 days, hoping to heal, but no good news is yet on the horizon.

Also, since Monday I’ve started my new job, which is cool and makes me enthusiastic, but steals a lot of time from my training schedules. When I’ll be better (soon?!?), I’ll have to be very accurate at planning my workouts and sticking to them. Hopefully I’ll convince some of my old training mates to do something with me at lunchtimes, otherwise, on my own, I won’t get too far at all.

My first italian half marathon

The blog starts from today. And right today, after about 1 week from my journey back to Italy, I had my first race. The Palmanova half marathon. Quite an important one in my region, but I failed any expectations. Unfortunately I was still suffering from a slight groin injury and the pain got stronger mile after mile, which forced me to slow down a lot. So, after the first “half-half-marathon”:) my chrono was quite a decent one: 36 mins, against the 40 mins for the second. For the record, the winner was a slovenian with 1h07′

The position was 40th, but believe me, for now this has no relevance to me at all. I’m just scared, and keen to recover from this injury ASAP. Possibly before the 2/12 marathon, in 2 weeks!

This blog

Following on the experience of Carol’s blog, I eventually decided to hold a blog about my Marathon’s ambitions.

I’ve been running for a year in Cambridge from Nov’06 to Nov’07, without many outstanding results, but I can consider this year as a long and gradual recovery from my neverending injuries. My last and only marathon took place in Milan, right 3 years ago. Awesome result: 2h32′20″. In order to achieve that, I did actually train a lot, and I will need to train a lot to reach such a standard again.

This is the purpose of this blog. I’ll write here a diary, accurate more or less, of what’s happening in the 21 weeks before the London Marathon 2008: 18 November 2007 – 13 April 2008. This is quite a lot, yes, and I’m quite sure I can manage to improve and get close to the 2h32′ if I focus on training.

Finally, why London 2008? London because it’s certainly one of the best and fastest courses in the world. And particularly the 2008 edition, since I’ll be able to run it as an english athlete, having been living for a year and having earned the qualifying standard for a championship entry.

Stay tuned!