Just to make sure I'll be in decent shape for next weekend I thought I'd go for a final training run and take the rest of the week off from running, just do my Wednesday ride.
I chose to do the same run as I did before the CTS Pembroke, but I had decided that I would tack-on a lap of the centre of the village when I got there to round it up to 18 miles rather than the 16 it would just be. The good thing is of the 16 miles 9 of them are cross-country on the tow-path, through woodlands, across a golf course and muddy fields, with the only big hill on the route coming near the end.
The goal was to run it without stopping for a breather - or at least get as far as possible beyond 12 miles, with a steady pace of 10 minute miles.
Everything went without incident, with no stops for breathers and off into the village I returned, only for my groin to suddenly get very tight in the middle, either through cramping or a strain so I had to make a judgement call. I thought that I could probably make the lap of the village, but with the big race a week away there was not too much point in risking a proper pull or tear, so I opted to hobble back home - which was a couple of hundred yards, to err on the side of caution and lard the groin in deep heat afterwards.
Looking at the splits I made the run without stopping in a 10 minute mile pace - although this was dropping off over the last few miles, so scaled up I suspect it would have averaged out at 12-13 minute miles over a full marathon distance.
Mentally and physically I feel I am in a far better shape going in to this marathon than before and I am raring to go, looking forward to an easy week before nailing the run at the end.
Looking hard at the GPS data of the course, it appears to have far fewer hills but longer in duration, rather than lots of short sharp ones on the Pembroke, although the run does finish with an ascent and descent of Mount Anglesey!
What I am not looking forward to is the 6 hour drive to get there and kipping in the car in the forecast sub-zero temperatures before doing the run.
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