Monday, November 29, 2010

Week in Review: Nov 22nd - Nov 28th (7 Weeks to HURT)

Not a good week running-wise.  I had the kids most of the week so it was a challenge to get runs in, but I managed.  I was away in Pittsburgh for the weekend, managed to get running in there but it sucked and I'm in pain now.

Mon - 30min ebike, upper body workout
Tues - 17k trail, 30min ebike, 30min stairs
Wed - 9k trail
Thurs - 30min ebike
Fri - 30min ebike
Sat - 31k road/trail
Sun - 8k treadmill

Total: 65k (37k trail, 20k road, 8k treadmill)

Tuesday's 17k was a night run, I need to get more of these in so I'm more accustomed to trail running in the dark.  I got home at 830pm, then got up at 4am Wed morning to a do morning run in the dark (I had to be at work early for a client event, bad timing).  Saw some raccoons and a few deer out there, the eyes light up in dark when the light hits them so they really stand out.

My office went to Pittsburgh for the weekend, we got there Fri night and stayed out late consuming much alcohol, I was in no condition to get up in the morning to run.  I headed out in the afternoon, but the nearest park with trails, Schenley Park, was about 5k away (I made a detour to stop at a running store and added a few more kms).  I ran around the trails for awhile then headed east to Frick Park.  I was feeling like shit, I almost puked a few times, maybe from the festivities the night before.  I didn't wear enough and I was shivering at this point.  My shin was absolutely killing me now.  Way to much road (should've planned this a little better), plus the higher heel in my road shoes made it worse.  I started running all of the downhills backwards, but eventually this hurt like hell too.  All in all a horrible experience. I had planned to go longer but I felt sick, my shin was ready to be amputated, I kept getting lost, and I had to be back to the hotel soon as we were going out to dinner.  A very slow, crappy run, took almost 4hrs to do 31km.  Probably 20k road and 11k trail.  Stupid.

The next morning I got up early before our bus home and tried a treadmill for the first time EVER.  Hopefully the last time EVER.  I hated it.  As soon as I started I was waiting for it to end.  It had a little TV mounted on it, but you can't focus on anything while bouncing up and down.  Again, went crazy with shin pain.  I set it on incline the whole time to alleviate some of the pain, but the heel is way too high in my road shoes and this didn't help much.  I dropped my towel almost wiped out trying to pick it up.  I had a cup of water, tried to drink it while running, I just spilled it all over the controls.  Did 8km, was supposed to do 10 but I started late and was hating it so I cut it short.

So, here we are.  Shin is feeling like crap again, this is not going well.  Absolutely NO more road running, I'd be better served to find stairs than do that again, I've set back shin healing.  Numbers should have been higher this week, but I had the kids every night and morning during the week except for Tues night and Wed morning, so I ran then.  Was supposed to get a few more in at lunch on Thurs, but had meetings most of the day and couldn't get out.  Sat run in Pittsburgh should have been longer, but that hell had to stop early.  Not sure what this coming week will be like, but I'm looking forward to some trail shoes and hills!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Week in Review: Nov 15th - Nov 21st (8 Weeks to HURT)

Good week, I finally ran again!  Got a little carried away on Sunday though and did 31k instead of my planned 20k.  Shin was sore near the end, but not too bad.

Mon - 8k trail, 30 min stairs, upper body workout
Tues - 30 min ebike, 45 min stairs, leg workout
Wed - 30 min ebike, upper body workout, core workout
Thurs - 10k trail, 45min stairs, 30 min ebike
Fri - 30 min ebike
Sat - 12k trail
Sun - 31k trail

Total: 61k trail, plus 2hrs stairs, plus 2hrs bike

Monday's 8k run my first in 2 weeks.  When I land on my heel and my foot smacks down, that;s what hurts the tendons.  Taking long strides makes my foot do this when landing, as does running downhill (not steps, just steep angled hills).  So, to alleviate this, I ran on my toes and some midfoot so that my heels don't land first.  I also took short strides.  The combination of these made for a very slow run, but pretty much pain free.

On Thurs, I increased to 10k and did the same thing, but I also ran downhills backwards so that I'm on my toes.  After this run , my calves and Achilles was getting sore from all the use (including a few sessions on the stairs), but at least my shins were getting a rest.  I did pretty much the same thing for my 12k on Saturday.  At this point I was very happy my shins weren't throbbing after the run, things were going well.

On Sunday, I headed up to Silvercreek Conservation Area.  I brought a map of the trails along, but that didn't stop me from getting lost numerous times.  I'm getting lost in Hawaii for sure.  When I started out, I wound up at back at my car after 9k, I thought I was heading north for the last few km but was actually retracing most of the route in the opposite direction and didn't even notice.  Coming form the opposite way I didn't recognize the same trail I'd run a little while earlier!  It snowed a bit in the last hour, so it covered the trail and that's my excuse. When I suddenly appeared at the car (thinking I was an hour away from it), then it all made sense.  I didn't even stop at the car, I was mad at myself and turned right around to run back to where I should've turned awhile earlier.  Trails were great, some very technical and rock parts.

I did a big loop on the Bruce trail and a side trail, came back to the car after 20k.  I had some munchies and then headed east along the Bruce and over to Terra Cotta Conservation Area.  I didn't like running here, the trials a big, wide, smooth and people friendly.  Much more used than the more remote rocky trails at Silvercreek, I won't be coming back to Terra Cotta.  After 26k, my shin started throbbing.  When my mind drifts I forget to run on my toes, plus Terra Cotta had some long gradual downhills that were hurting my shin.  I started running most of them backwards, that felt much better on my shin.

All in all a very productive week.  I was able to run (there's a positive!) and get more mileage than I'd planned.  Looks like my shin will be sore for awhile longer, but it's definitely better than before and I can't wait any longer to get on with some proper training and get the mileage up.  So I'll keep running on my toes, taking short strides and running backwards downhill.  At least this way I can keep running, and my calves should be killer strong after all this.

Next week will be a challenge, I have the kids most of the week so it will be hard to fit runs in, then my office is off to Pittsburgh for the weekend so I'm not sure how much running I can get in there either.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Week in Review: Nov 8th - Nov 14th (9 Weeks to HURT)

This was my 2nd week in a row with no running, but I did get plenty of biking, stepping and a hike which I ran a little on.  Shin is improving, but everything is still up in the air, and I'm running out of time!

Mon - 30 min ebike, light leg workout
Tues - 45 min ebike, 30 min stairs
Wed - 30 min ebike
Thurs - 1hr ebike, core workout
Fri - 45min stairs, 50 min mountain bike
Sat - 10k hike
Sun - 1hr ebike, core workout

Total: 10k hike, 4hr 35min biking, 1hr 15min stairs

Well I biked everyday in some form except for Sat.  On Saturday, I headed up to Silvercreek Conservation area.  I was hoping that I could use these trails for some night runs, so I thought I'd check them out in daylight first.  It was much rockier and more technical at times than I was expecting.  This is great for some technical trail, but I really shouldn't be running out here at night by myself, I'd be asking for trouble.  I also couldn't get cell phone reception, so wouldn't be a good idea.  I'll head up here during the day though, some nice trails.

I hiked for 10k, even mixed in a few short running spurts.  This didn't feel good on my shin though, so I kept it the running to a minimum, not even enough to count this as a run.

I went to 'The Steps' a couple times, just walked up and down the 97 steps for 30min and another day 45min.  I plan to increase this as it doesn't hurt my shin and it's great training for the hills in Hawaii.
This coming week I'll try some short runs, hopefully everything will feel ok and I can increase to longer runs by the weekend.  2 months to go!  I need about 6....

Monday, November 8, 2010

Week in Review: Nov 1st - Nov 7th (10 Weeks to HURT)

Not much to say about this week, no running involved.  My shin still hurts, but it's getting better.  I'm fairly certain it's tendonitis at the bottom of my Anterior Tibialis muscle.  I'm icing it a few times a day, wearing compression socks 24/7, wearing a brace or band to keep it stabilized and stretching my calf plenty.  If it doesn't get better soon, this whole thing is shot.

Mon - off
Tues - Upper body workout, core workout
Wed - off
Thurs - leg workout (1hr of chair step-ups)
Fri - 30min ebike
Sat - off
Sun - 1hr mtn bike, upper body workout, core workout

Total: big fat zero

I was going to bike more this week, but I thought I'd give my shin some rest.  It actually doesn't hurt when I bike, but there are a few times I twist weird or put my foot down to avoid a wipeout on the trails, those didn't feel good.  Step-ups feel ok, but again I wanted to get one week of resting it so I only did them once.

I was supposed to go for a night trail run on Wed, obviously didn't happen.  I was also supposed to do 80k trail run on Sunday with some people, that's not happening anytime soon.  This is going to set me way back.  I'm going to start doing more step-ups to simulate some steep hill climbing.  There's a nasty steep 97 step rocky stairway just off a trail I run, I plan to head there and do some climbing this week.  Stepping up or down doesn't seem to bother my shin, but walking downhill does hurt as I bend my foot downward.

On Sunday, I used the time I would usually run to go check out some trials.  I need to find some more rough and technical trails around here.  Rattlesnake is great, but the gates close at dusk and there's no parking on any streets in the area, so I'll never be able to go there during the week.  So I drove up to Terra Cotta Conservation Area and Silver Creek Conservation Area.  These are also along the escarpment, so hopefully there'll be some rocky and technical trails I can try out.  I went for a short walk along one of the trails to have a look, but it wasn't what I was looking for.  The 2 conservation areas are adjacent to each other, and I can park on the street between them day or night, so I'll head up there for some runs once I'm feeling better.  About a 40 minute drive, not too bad.

The plan is now to rest another week, ZERO running whether I want to or not (I'm fine with NOT right now).  After next week I'll decide whether to try some light runs or keep resting it.  Any rest beyond that and I'm screwed.  This week I'll do more biking and stair climbs.  Still icing and stretching.....loads of fun.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Horror Hill

Horror Hill  was last Saturday, Oct 30th at Camp Heidleberg, just NE of Waterloo.  It's a 6hr trail race around a 2.5km loop.  Only 47 runners, but there's always people around with such a small loop.  A few short steep hills and lots of twists and turns.  You get to pass by your drop bag with any change of clothing or food every lap, which was convenient.  Actually, I barely went to my bag so I guess it didn't really matter.  I wasn't sure how my shin would hold up, so I didn't want to go too hard, plus I knew I was supposed to do another 40km the next morning, but once the race starts it's kind of hard to hold back.

I just kept a steady pace, after an hour I was still within 100 metres or so of the leaders.  At this point most people were just cruising along, the people who wanted to push it would do so soon.  At this point my shin was a little sore, but not much.  It was nice chatting with familiar faces.  I ran for awhile with Paul, who blew past me at the last race, Vulture Bait.   I ran for a bit with Charlotte, she's done HURT 4 times so got some good tips from her.  She's been having back problems and was taking it easy.  One guy got hauled off in an ambulance, but he was ok.  He was having chest pain then when he sat down had some numbness in his arm, the didn't take any chances and called it in.

I continued to keep a steady pace most of the race, my shin hurt more and more after a few hours.  I had brought single pouches of Eload to drink, but I had to stop at my bag and get a pouch, then get my bottle filled with water then pour in and mix.  Screw that, I did it once then it was too much of a hassle to do again.  I was thinking of doing this at HURT, I may have to rethink my hydration strategy.   For today, I just stuck to water.  It wasn't hot so I wasn't sweating too much, plus I really wasn't going that hard so I was ok without the extra electrolytes.  Jen had told me to have a gel every 40 minutes, but I lost track after the first 2.  So much for that.  I just had one every hour or so, along with a salt pill every hour.

For the first 3 hrs or so I stopped at the aid station every lap to grab bananas, pretzels, apples and oranges, but eventually I was eating too much so I started to skip it.  We kept passing by a BBQ that was cooking food for later, that was making me hungry for some real food though.

After 5hrs or so my shin was in a lot of pain.  Now I'm just waiting for the race to end so I can ice my shin and eat some lunch!  After lap 23, it looked like I might have enough time to get 1 more lap in if I hurried (current time is 5h 45min 25sec).  I turned it on and did a light sprint for the final 2.5k, going faster than I'd gone all day.  I also noticed that while I did this, I couldn't feel my shin pain anymore, maybe it was the adrenalin.  The last lap was fun, everyone saw me booting it and was cheering me on as I passed.  My 24th lap turned out to be my fastest lap of the day (11min 56 sec).  When I passed the start/finish, I had more time left than I'd expected so I kept going and got in an extra 500 metres, finished with 60.5km.  After 5.5hrs, they hand you a flag with your number on it, so at 6hrs when a horn blows you stop and stab your flag in the ground where you are, then they measure that and add it to you lap total.

If my shin was feeling better I would have pushed it harder. If I can run my fastest lap at the 5h45min mark, then I haven't exactly paced myself properly....again.  Had a great time though.  I finished 10th overall, 1st for males under 40 (out of a whopping 9 guys), so won a $25 gift certificate.  The post race meal was great, I had a burger and some lasagna, that really hit the spot.  Got to chat with lots of people, some know I'm doing HURT and were asking how the training is going.  Got some more info out of Charlotte, I also met another guy there who got into HURT through the lottery.  Like me, he's never done a 100 miler, but he only plans to to do 100k any HURT.  I think the only way you should do 100k is if you go for 100 miles and don't make it, but he seems content with setting his sights on 100k (am I crazy or is he?  I don't know).  I also got a free massage, the girl doing it told me my calves are extremely tight and I should think about seeing a specialist.  That was great though, I wasn't sore at all the next few days (not including the shin), I think the massage really helped.

All in all a fun race.  I actually like the little 2.5km course, will probably be back next year.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Week in Review: Oct 25th - Oct 31st (11 Weeks to HURT)

Well this week has it's high points, and it's very, very, low points.  Got lots of running in, did 6hr Horror Hill trail race, and booked tickets to Hawaii.  Bad news is my shin might be worse, so now I'm on 2 weeks of absoultely NO running to try and let it heal.

Mon - 1hr ebike, upper body workout
Tues - 10k gravel trail, leg workout, core workout
Wed - 45min ebike, upper body workout
Thurs - 10k trail, core workout
Fri - off
Sat - 60k trail race
Sun - 30k road

Total - 110km (70k trail/30k road/10k gravel trail) plus 1h 45min ebike

My shin was starting to feel better after almost no running last week, so on Tues I did a light 10k on gravel trail.  I didn't want the pounding of a road or the roughness on a trail, so flat gravel was perfect.  It was a little sore but not bad.  On Thursday I did another light 10k on a trail this time.  I wore an ankle support which I thought felt ok, but when I took it off later it was leaving nasty marks soon to be blisters, so I'm not running in that again.  This run let me think I'd be ok to run 6hr Horror Hill on Saturday, I'll do a seperate post for the race.

On Saturday, my shin started to hurt mid-race, but it wasn't too bad.  I managed to get in 60.5k at the race. I put ice on my shin immediately after and then got a massage at the post race festivities, that seemed to help.  The masseuse told me my right calf was extremely tight, this is probably the cause of my shin trouble as the tight calf puts strain on the muscles in front of my shin trying to lift the foot up.

The next morning at I met some other runners for a run on some country roads at 5 friggin 30 am.  This was actually the first time I've ever run with others, not including races.  I had to get used to the format, every 20 minutes they walk for a minute and have water, after next 20 a gel, next 20  is water, and so on.  After 2hrs it's food.  Usually, I just drink when I want , eat when I'm hungry and have a gel every now and then.  I don't walk until an hour or 2 into the run.  It took some getting used to, but the format was working well.  I didn't wait 2hrs for my PB Nutella banana wraps though!  During the run my shin really started bothering me.  This was my first road run in about 2 months, not a good idea after doing 60k the day before. Someone noticed me limping about 40 minutes in (damn walking breaks), and suggested I stop 30k, was supposed to do 40.

We got back to the cars at 30k and a few people were done.  I was going to be stupid and push through another 10k, but I came to my senses.  I was actually in a lot of pain and shouldn't have even done the previous 30, so good thing I stopped.  A couple of runners headed out for another 10k, I headed home already dreading the walk around the neighbourhood taking the kids trick or treating later.

So, lesson learned, when something hurts you don't run 90k over the weekend.  It's now the day after and my upper foot and lower shin are swollen and huge.  Whatever healing I had going on for the last 2 weeks has been erased.  Yes, I am an idiot.  So, I am now on ZERO running for the next 2 weeks minimum.  I now HAVE to let this heal so I can resume training, otherwise there's no way I can be ready for HURT.

This is quite a setback, as I should be increasing my mileage right now.  I was looking forward to this week.  I was supposed to meet someone on Wed evening for a night run on some wicked trail.  He actually designs courses for races so it would have been a great experience.  We'll try and do it again once I've healed.  Next Sunday I was suppsed to do 80k trail with some people at EAT DIRT, an unofficial race/fun run.  I'm out for that too.

So the next 2 weeks will be a lot of icing my shin and stretching my calves.  I'll be wearing compression socks and keeping my shin and ankle wrapped and supported the whole time. I'll hit the bike and excersise bike, along with the usual workouts, just NO running.  I better cut down my eating a little for the next 2 weeks too!  After 2 weeks, I'll see where I'm at and whether I need any more time off.  There's not that much time left really.  Figures I booked my tickets this week, no going back now!   I'm confident this will heal if I take care of it properly, but right now it hurts like a bitch!