Tuesday: We met out at the trail that I had run on for the first time on Sunday, road E3. I ran with Fasil and Jordan and took it pretty easy as I had a workout the next day and I wanted to feel good for it. A nice and easy 10 miles and then it was time to head home for breakfast, nap and then work. The second run was an easy 8 miles and then I made a dinner of mushroom and provolone burgers (in a beer sauce) and some fried spaghetti. I had never tried this recipe before and I think I will spice up the burgers the next time as it only called for ground sirloin. It definitely needed some garlic or some herbs in there. The fried spaghetti was interesting (taken from ‘Jamie’s Italy’ recipe book) and I think I will make that again as it was very simple. I had a little trouble sleeping that night for some reason. I think that I just wasn’t tired when we went to bed. I think I fell asleep at around 11pm

Wednesday: This morning was a 16*400m workout for me. I would be on my own so I went to Sinagua high school to use their track before any classes came out and I would get kicked off. It was a long workout as the recovery was 400m also so it is 8 miles total on the track. I found it quite tough starting off but I worked my way down from a first rep of 71 secs (whoops!) to 64 secs at the end. I hadn’t been on the track for a while so I knew it was going to be hard going and that my legs would be pretty sore afterwards so luckily I had booked a massage later on to freshen them up a bit. I drove by Buffalo Park to talk to Greg and invite him over to the house to talk about the rest of the marathon training before heading down the road back to the house. I had breakfast, iced my psoas and used my massage stick on my calves while I waited for him to arrive.

Greg and I went over the training and why certain workouts were on certain days. The build up is slightly different to what I did for London so it should be good to see how it turns out. I headed to bed after he had left and had a short nap before getting up and trying to get some work done. I didn’t have much time as my massage was at 3.30pm and I had to get an hour run in before then. I was baking some brownies for our friends and had to wait for them to be ready before heading out the door at 2.15pm. Of course, only a couple of miles into the run I got a nose bleed and stopped and waited for that to stop before running on. I’m glad I didn’t go and get my blood test this week as I would have had hardly any blood left in my body after all the bloody nose’s I’ve had this week. I washed my face up in a puddle by the side of the trail and finished off the run. I got back and quickly got changed before heading down the road to see Dana for my massage. The massage was just what I needed and Dana did a great job and working out all the kinks and knots that had developed from the morning’s workout. Last year after that workout my legs felt really bad for a few days so hopefully the massage will have combated that problem. I headed down to the grocery store after the massage to pick up some stuff for dinner and grabbed 30lbs of ice so I could have an ice bath.

The ice bath was really cold but I felt really good for having had one and then a really hot shower so that I could cook without shivering for the rest of the night. I made some garlic greens beans, potatoes and a ribeye steak for me and a grilled chicken for Julie. I had to eat before Julie had got back from running with her friend as I was starving. Once she got back I headed out to meet Carlson and some friends to say goodbye as he was leaving the next day to go home and train there. We were going to be doing our marathon training together but it will be good for him to start anew and refresh himself in a new training environment.