Wine, curry, jelly babies and steroid injections...

I was pleased this week to clock a personal best at Congleton parkrun. The official time was 20:28 for the 5 kilometre route beating my previous best of 20:44 set a couple of years back. I went to parkrun with my youngest son, Louis, and I said to him before that I didn't feel particularly up for it. My legs felt tired and Friday night wine and take-away curry aren't really the best preparation! 

The time was even more of a surprise given that I haven't been focusing on speed over recent weeks but made me think there is more in the tank and that an overall 5 kilometre personal best (currently 19:43) might not be too far away...

I've also been practising fuelling my longer runs and carrying water. In years gone by I've often just headed out without too much thought about nutrition and hydration. I'm now not convinced this was the smartest strategy and so have been eating jelly babies, one per mile, on my longer runs. I've never got on with the running gels but need to figure out how to stop the jelly babies forming into a congealed mess before I finish!! Also still not sure about the best way of carrying water. I've been using a camelbak but bought a hydration back pack this week. The back pack comes with soft flasks which just seems a bit weird!

And finally, I've been experiencing heel pain since the turn of the year. It hasn't stopped me running but has been an ongoing bother. I've tried varying how much I run as well as stretching and strengthening exercises, insoles and shockwave therapy but all to no avail. My main concern is how it will hold up doing marathon after marathon, day after day during the Brathay 10 in 10. So, I opted to consult an excellent sports and exercise medicine physician today who scanned my heel which showed a thickened plantar fascia. Given that I'd tried other treatment options, he injected the plantar fascia with a steroid. I'm hoping that will show some effect but only time will tell.

Four weeks to go now until my first marathon of the year.

If you want to read a little more about the Brathay Trust and my motivation for running 10 marathons in 10 days, then you can do that here.

If you feel able to donate to the cause, you can do that here via Just Giving.

Thanks for your support and for reading this far!

Cheers, Chris