Maybe Confidence Boost

Perth 32k Race today

The plan today was to head out easy and push the second half at MP. Helping resist my urge to go faster early were - moderately heavy drinking night last night, pouring rain in the first 5k, and running with Rob who was suffering some leg pains in the first half hour.

This worked and we reached 10k in 43:15 - around 4:20min/km. Once we crossed the narrows, we passed Nera Jareb and friend, speeding up in the process and running the next 7k@4:10s. At the turnaround about 18k I picked up to 4:00s and ran a very consistent 4:00 pace for the last 14k (fastest km 3:57, slowest 4:02).

Things went quite well in this section, I passed 8 or 9 people and they were fairly evenly spread, giving me something to focus on each time. The effort only became hard in the last 2k, but I think part of this may have been lack of calories in - running with no sports drink and only one gel at 15k.

Plantar fascia was manageable during the race but really quite sore afterwards - i restrapped it with some relief.

Week leading up:
Mon 12k@4:53 recovery
Tues am 16k with 8k fartlek in about 31:30
Tues pm 9k@4:45 recovery
Wed am 23k@4:37 medium long
Thurs am 10.6@4:45
Fri am 14k@4:33
Sat rest day

118k for the week

One advantage of the sore foot (and associated pes anserine pain) is that my recoveries have slowed to be closer to true recoveries.

This week sees a return to 130+km with a medium long, a medium long including 9k tempo and a longer long run with time on feet the same as on Marathon day. 

Pushing Through

I've been fortunate to have a (so far) good recovery from my injury. I decided early in the week to push through, and a change in my taping technique really helped. Having said this, there is still pain with each step, but now it's more a nagging pain, not a knife digging into my heel.

Mon am 13k@4:35 - trying to ward off jetlag, helped by no running 48hrs
Mon pm 10k@4:30 - had turned up at the surgery to do a pm session only to find I'd booked myself off - bonus pm run
Tues am 12k incl 8k tempo (split into 2) - foot actually felt better running fast as I tend to midfoot strike more at that pace - less heel-toe transition and less strain in the arch
Tues pm 8k@4:40 - jogged with Rob prior to his interval session - heel starting to get pretty sore
Wed am 12k@4:40 - sore
Wed pm 8k@4:40 - sore
Thurs am 10k@4:40 - a bit better
Fri am 12k@4:35 - flare after stopping anti-inflams due to stomach pains
Sat am 12k@4:35 - included some strides done the wrong way again (trying to be quick before work)
Sun am 33k@4:34 - met Rob with the intention of holding on as long as i could. Heel pain was a stable 3/10 throughout, bigger issue was the rest of the leg coping with gait change - nasty pes anserine bursa pain for the rest of the day.

So I've done much better than anticipated, and really wasn't too far off a normal training week other than not feeling up to medium long runs.
I've now got some questions to ask re the perth 32k race next weekend, which was going to be a key prep race run at MP. A taper week was planned. Should I just ramp up the mileage and run it as a long run, or a fast finish long run, or still try to run it hard. I'll discuss with 'coach'.

Plantar fasciitis

Timing is a funny thing. After my last post I ran 12k recovery on Monday and a 24k medium long on Tuesday. We were due to fly out wed am so i got up early to do a tempo run. About 4k into the tempo I felt a sudden onset pain in my heel, and over the next 2k it got progressively worse such that I couldn't run. I hobbled home and had to pretty much jump straight into the taxi after showering.

I've had mild PF on & off over the years - pain first getting up, pain in the first couple of minutes running, nothing to write home about. Obviously on this occasion I tore my PF acutely

In the airport and in transit, I could barely walk, and this persisted for about 36-48hrs. I had time at home to throw some local anaesthetic and cortisone into my case, so once in maui I injected some steroid into the PF - I wasn't going to let this ruin my holiday (but it was the most painful thing I've done to myself).

With rest & anti-inflams, the pain settled and on the Friday I did some elliptical and stairmaster at the hotel gym, and on sat & sun some painful 5k walk/jogs - not the oceanside morning run's I'd envisaged.

Beyond my foot, maui was incredible - the Four Seasons far eclipsed any other resort style hotel i've ever stayed at - especially the adults only pool area. In further proof of the smallness of the world these days, Henry/Homo - erstwhile running friend in Perth, happened to be staying at the same hotel at the same time, and recognised me from the other side of the aforementioned pool. (in arranging a time to catch up, he simply said he'd be sitting by that pool the entire day - it was that kind of place).

So if one is going to withdraw from running anywhere, that would be the place. I managed to do some (poor) surfing and standing paddle boarding, but walking and running were still very painful.

After 6 nights of heaven, MaiTais and 3 cooked meals a day, we headed back to honolulu. I managed 3x8-10k treadmill runs here, but still pain with every step unfortunately.

Back on Monday I managed 13k, and this morning 12k - pain no better though (and some problems with other parts of the foot due to altered gait)

Not sure how things will go from here - obviously I've done a lot of reading on plantar fasciitis and PF tears in the last couple of weeks. It looks like there are a couple of scenarios. One is that my acute tear heals within weeks and I go back to normal training perhaps within a month. The second is that the injury becomes chronic and this is a scenario I know all too well from patients,work colleagues and family members who still struggle to run 6 months down the track.

Cross the fingers. Either way my Perth training program seems screwed, will just run what I can and make plans once I am running painfree again.

(looking at the net whilst i was away, it seemed like a time for injuries with B'Man and DB going down at a similar time. Good luck recovering guys)

Another good week

Further increase in mileage this week - 146k a record for me. Same structure as last week - tempo 8k Tues am, medium long runs Wed and Fri am, long run this morning with a 10k fast finish in 39:25 - much easier effort than last time I tried this.

Quads much improved with the introduction of hills again (in my recovery runs) - thanks Simon.

Fridays medium run was a 'flow' or 'in the zone' run which was effortless and confidence building.

Otherwise - I've enjoyed reading some articles on 'sweat science' blog linked to through B'Man via Science of Sport blog - I was particularly interested in an opinion on methods to improve your recovery ( ICE, massage,anti-inflams) might be also reducing your adaptation to the injury and thus reducing the benefits of training. On a personal front I've had several patients ask this week about strontium - which apparently has been shown to increase thickness of knee cartilage (ie reverse early arthritis/degenerative change). the study hasn't been published yet but I can see it becoming the next big thing given nothing else has been shown to do this (other than the limited evidence for glucosamine/chondroitin)

Monday 12.12k 0:56:19 4:39

Tuesday

AM 4.04k 0:18:51 4:40

AM 8.00k 0:30:15 3:47

AM 4.17 k 0:19:35 4:42

PM 8.34k 0:38:17 4:35

Wednesday

AM 23.61k 1:46:01 4:29

PM 5.20k 0:25:00 4:48

Thursday 10.17k 0:48:19 4:45

Friday 23.99k 1:46:41 4:27

Saturday 12.97k 0:59:25 4:35

Sunday 33.63k 2:30:24 4:28

This Week 146.25k 10:59:07 4:30

This week off to Maui then Honolulu total 10days, hope to keep up some easier mileage.