This post is about what should have been week 15 of Jeffing Half Marathon Training (see week 14). This was the week of the first half marathon, not the one I was ultimately training for though. After my hip hurting for months my fitness I had slipped and I certainly wasn’t doing the miles. It was time to make a decision on whether I would actually run it.
Bank Holiday Monday Week Walking
We went to see my Aunt and Uncle and then went to the cinema, which involved a little bit of walking. Then on Tuesday my husband and I walked to chip shop and waited for ages outside but were ignored. Therefore, we ended up eating out at a local pub using vouchers I exchanged with Tesco reward points the night before. Wednesday I took the tween on a short walk to play on the park and with his basketball. I also had another short walk with hubby on the Thursday.
Chiropractor
My husband drove me over to see the chiropractor. This time she tried laser therapy on me. As I wasn’t responding to treatment well she said that there was the possibility of it being due to a stress fracture on my hip. That I should see if I could get an X-Ray through the doctors.
Doubts about the Half Marathon
This is when I had serious doubts about running the half marathon at the weekend. You may think I was crazy for even still thinking about it. In fact about running it at all. I even asked if I could swap to the 10k (which I could).
Part of me was worried that I would make things worse by running; yet another part was worried I would never be able to train up to that fitness again and that I had to use what I had before I lost it!
I hated that I would lose money on it, but kept trying to tell myself that the damage it could do would cost me a lot more. Still no-one was taking up the offer of my place.
River Swimming
Thursday I had a river swim with the younger teen at lunchtime. We got in the opposite side to usual as we met up with someone. It turned out that her son went to school with my oldest, that they knew each other too as had taken the same A-levels.
There was a fisherman over the steps where you get in and out but we still managed to swim. There was quite a drop in temperature as the thermometer duck said it had gone to 17 degrees. That was 5 degrees less than it had 2 weeks previously.
Friday – Decision Day
The chiropractor said that I should make a decision about the half on Friday. My friend Natalie had actually asked me what I was doing Sunday so having another potential option of something I wanted to do did help sway it.
On the Friday morning I was walking a bit of what I imagined was both the Half Marathon and 10K course and thought it a bit of an incline. It made me think about how damaging it could be to me. That day I went to see a friend and talked a bit about it over coffee. Later that day I made the decision not to risk it.
Cancelling Swimming Lessons
It was also the day I finally cancelled the younger teen’s Friday swimming lessons. After speaking to the manager of the leisure centre he agreed they aren’t actually doing anything for him. It has been 2 years since he joined after leaving Swimming Club.
I aim to get a premium membership which gives me 4 junior memberships (I only need 2) and that’s only an extra £6 a month. This means I can do all the classes and we can all swim and use the gym (well all meaning me and my juniors).
No More Rugby
It feels a bit full circle as the reason the teen didn’t want to swim anymore was because he wanted to play rugby. But on Saturday he decided that he no longer wanted to be on the rugby team
Parkrun
Parkrun I tried jeffing at a ratio of a 60:30. This means I ran for a minute at a time and walked for 30 seconds in between. I tried my Tikiboo skort but I had to pull it up everytime I was on a walk.
My Parkrun started off well with a sub 9 minute mile. The heat and lack of practice was just too much for me though and I couldn’t sustain it. For the first time I considered that the half marathon pb, which I jeffed and was trying to beat, was actually run in the winter! I guess if I stand a chance of beating it I will need it to be nice and cold again!
Sunday of the Half Marathon
The Sunday of what should have been my practice half marathon came around. Instead I went for a swim with Natalie. It was a really hot day and I am glad I didn’t run. In fact Sarah’s son had a seizure from the heat. There wasn’t as much water out on the course as usual either.
In the afternoon we went to a family barbeque of a group the boys belong to. Older teen was working as staff there and there was some stuff to get the boys moving a bit there too.
Weights
I put a couple of light weights on my desk. The idea was to just use them a bit now and then to slowly improve my arms if nothing else.