“All easy running between now and Sunday’s marathon” – that’s what I kept telling myself as I ran my last quality session in the build up to the 2009 Shamrock Marathon.
This afternoon was a fairly tough workout, but it felt good. I warmed up for 15 minutes, ran 4 x 1000m (200m recovery jog), stretched for a while and then did 3 x 200m (200m recovery jog). To finish off the workout I jogged slowly for 10 minutes as a cool down.
I didn’t want the stress of running against the clock, so focused on getting faster as the workout progressed and just running by feel. I think I did pretty good and generally felt happy with leg turnover and running form.
Not sure what the deal is with the groin issue however: midway through the second 1000m, the discomfort reared its ugly head again. It seems to happen every time I “stride out”, so maybe I just need to concentrate on stretching the area for the next couple of days? Right now, the discomfort doesn’t stop me running fast, but in the back of my mind I’m a little concerned what will happen in Sunday’s 26.2 mile race. I guess whatever will be, will be, and with 2 or 3 days of easy running and plenty of stretching I’m sure I’ll be fine come race day.
On a positive note, the weather looks to be pretty good for Sunday – high of 57°F with just a 7mph SSW wind. Not quite sure how I feel about the 74% humidity, but at least it looks like we won’t be battling a 25mph north wind this year!
Good luck to everyone running one of the Shamrock events this weekend. Enjoy the last couple of days and be sure to have fun on race day!