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!
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