Injury Woes - Oxford Half Marathon Training Diary - Week 8

Posted on: 1 October 2024

This post is part of a 10-part series charting my training block for the Oxford Half Marathon 2024.

23rd - 29th September

  • Total volume: 36.9km (4.3k football)
  • Longest run: 15.2km
  • Average resting & max HR: 39 / 132
  • Average bed time: 23:04
  • Easy / hard split: 81/19
  • Tanda marathon race predictor: 3:10:50 (🔼 00:00:58)
  • Training VDOT: 53.9

Oxford week 8 plan

Monday

After a hard, fatiguing end to peak week, Monday was a 7.5km recovery run. I didn’t even look at pace, just tried to keep HR under 135. I quite enjoyed this run, and pace turned out to be 5:01/km, so not as slow as I was expecting. Body felt OK considering Sunday’s effort. I also snuck in 1.2km around Hove Park before football as I felt like I wanted a little warm up jog.

Football was a decent effort at 68RE on Strava. No goalkeeping stints, so a sizeable 4.35km in total volume with an average HR of 146.

Tuesday

I’d decided to take Tuesday completely off to let my body recover. I ended Monday’s football session with a Garmin recovery time of 4 days, by the far my highest ever I think. I didn’t completely relax; I added a 30 minute core workout before bed. Always a tough one.

Wednesday

And then, the week went south. I was 3.5km into a warmup for a goal pace over/under session, aiming for 16km, when I suddenly pulled up with a sharp pain in my upper back. It caught me completely off guard and momentarily restricted my breathing with a tightness in my chest. After 30 minutes, it was still there, so with the run abandoned, I called 111 for some advice.

1 hour later, and I was sat in the waiting room at A&E in Haywards Heath. 111 had called an ambulance to my house, where I’d had an ECG followed by a ride to the hospital for further checks. At this point, the tightness had subsided and I was just left with a pain in my back. Lung and heart checks came back negative, so I was free to go. Still none-the-wiser as to what had happened.

Presuming a pulled muscle of some description, I had no choice but to take the rest of the day, and the next day off completely.

Thursday

The pain had reduced throughout Thursday, and I was able to test the waters with some light jogging in the middle of an afternoon walk.

Friday

After waking up feeling a lot better, I decided to try to rescue my week with a 13km easy run. The weather was drizzly, but I was buoyed by being out on the lanes again, running pain-free. I ended up running 15.2km in the end, at a steady 4:49/km pace. I felt back on track.

Saturday

I’d had Saturday earmarked for a couple of weeks to try Bevendean Down Parkrun. A friend’s local Parkrun, and one of the toughest in terms of elevation profile in the UK! It was a lovely, crisp Autumn morning and I was excited to try out a new course. Bevendean has a small, close, community feel to it, averaging around 30 runners.

I had planned to run this as a steady tempo effort, but as I was behind on intensity for the week, I decided I’d give it a good go, whilst respecting the hills.

It started well. I started conservatively but soon moved up to third place and surveyed the competition in front of me. That’s when I got another sharp pain in my back after taking a deep breath in. Shit.

I ran on for a bit, waiting for the pain or tightness to set in, but fortunately it didn’t. I was almost holding my breath at this point, prepared to drop out of the run less than 1km in. And although I could feel the niggle, it didn’t get any worse. I cracked on, soon taking the lead and starting the first serious ascent up the hill.

I finished the race quite a long way out in front. A really enjoyable race (under the circumstances), with sweeping views of Brighton and the south coast on the way back down the hill. I was thrilled to get my first “first finisher” at Parkrun in a time of 21:30. Not exactly quick, but with 130m of elevation, and me holding back, I was really pleased.

Elevation quickly turned to dread when I could properly process that my injury from Wednesday had not gone away. The rest of the day was mostly moping and contemplating what this meant for the next 2 weeks of my training plan ahead of the race.

Sunday

No long run sadly. I woke up with a sore back and had zero intention to test it out. I was going to be conservative this time. Whether this means days or a week’s rest, I don’t know.

Ultimately, getting to the start line injury free is now my top priority. But I couldn’t help but be downhearted to not be able to finish my plan on a high, and on my terms. Injury can strike at any time, and is much more common after the peak week I’d had previously.

The fact it isn’t a “running injury” per se is both a blessing but a source of frustration too. My legs feel fresh and ready to go, but my upper body isn’t. Could this have been caused by the core work I did on Tuesday night? Maybe. Was it an accumulation of several weeks of hard effort? It's likely. But it’s frustrating the injury came immediately after a rest day.

Overall

Unsurprisingly, a training week low on the volume front. My focus has to shift to just getting better now, and hope the fitness I’ve built in the previous 7 weeks will carry me through on race day (if I make it).

I got one conditioning workout in and didn’t boulder due to my injury.

Tags: running health