The Last Two Weeks

Things have not gone exactly as planned the last two weeks…

Saturday after the race and Sunday, besides being obviously flat and tired, my legs, joints and body had no real "sore spots".  The lack of  soreness and stiffens was surprising, as usually I have at least one problem area for a few days after a big race. 

Monday my right foot started hurting. 

For the first few days I sort of ignored it, as I was confident it was just a bruise on the back and outside portion of my foot.  Well, that wasn’t the case, it got worse and by Wednesday and Thursday I was having a hard time walking without a serious limp.  I was just so excited that the body felt great, I was ready to do some easy running and I felt the suspected bruise would just go away. 

As it has been the case a few times already this year, with a little visit to Marcus Allen, the problem was identified correctly.  This time, the recovery would be a little longer than a minor muscle strain or irritation.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to Marcus until Friday after the race.    

On the first lap of my race, I rolled my right ankle.  After gingerly jogging on it for a few minutes it slowly went away and I didn’t think about it again.  When I rolled the ankle, I strained my Peroneal tendons, which run down and around the outside of the back portion of my foot.  It was time for some alternative training. 

Sunday: 3.5M; Flat; Easy; Little jogging in Austin.

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: 20 Minutes; Flat; Easy; foot starting to hurt. 

Wednesday: 40 Minutes; Flat; Easy; felt great, but foot continued to hurt.  Funny thing is that it hurt more after running walking around than during the run.  Was sure it would go away.

Thursday: 60 Minutes; Flat; Easy; Felt great again, but foot bothering me. 

Friday: 25 Mile bike ride from campus, up Boulder Creek Bike path west, up 4 Mile Canyon, Gold Hill Road, to Gold Hill (town), down Sunshine Canyon, back to campus; This was an awesome ride.  I pushed pretty hard, out of frustration with my foot and not being able to run, and made the 13ish miles to Gold Hill in just over 1:30, just under 10 miles an hour.  My heart rate was thumping the whole time. 

On the way down I saw the fire, I didn’t know about, by Four Mile Canyon, pretty crazy.  Also exciting was doing 12 miles in about 30 minutes… 1:54 MILE, that was pretty thrilling for a distance runner, especially an Ultra guy!  I think I hit just shy of 38 Miles Per Hour on my mountain bike!  Right around 2hrs for the total ride. 

The Loop I Biked

Left Hand Fire

Saturday: Skied at Vail, did my favorite side-country, East Vail Chutes, oh yeah!

Top of Clifs at East Vail Chutes 

Looking Back Up Cliffs @ East Vail Chutes

Sunday: Off

Monday: 2 Miles; The foot didn’t hurt walking around, so I gave it a try after two days of no running… I got to 1.7 miles and it started to bug me.  Frustrating walk home. 

Tuesday: Back to the bike.  25 Miles down (east) Boulder Creek Bike Path, to S.Boulder Creek Bike Path, Bobolink section, Marshall Rd, single track trails by community ditch and back.  Another hard effort ride with 25 miles in 1:40. 

Foot still sore.

Wednesday: Aqua-jog.  Aqua-jogging is pretty lame, but I refused to lose my running specific fitness!  At the CU gym/recreation center is a lap pool and a diving “well”.  The diving well is 12-14’ deep pretty big and always empty.  I put on my floatie and did laps for an hour trying to keep running form and heart rate up.  The lifeguard enjoys country, I don’t.  

Foot getting better, but not ready.

The Aqua Jogging "Track"

Thursday: Aqua-Jog hard workout.  While on a houseboat on Lake Powell with a number of my former MSU teammates a few years back, we figured out we could Aqua-Jog with no floaties, as it was way to hot and there were no trails to run or floaties.  Your form goes to hell, but your hear rate goes up, which is tough to do Aqua-jogging.  I did a routine in the pool for 95 minutes of 2 laps easy, 1 lap harder, 1 lap no floatie then repeat 4 or 5 times.  This worked out pretty well.

Foot getting better, but not ready.

Friday: 2 Miles… foot not better; Aqua-Jog lameness for an hour, with country music;   hour thirty mountain bike ride with 3 other couples.  We biked at Hall Ranch outside of Lyons on great technical single track.  Good day of cardio… but not running. 

Foot getting better but not ready.

Hall Ranch (summer)

Saturday: Off; My foot didn’t hurt at all, but I decided to wait until Monday to try again.  Couldn’t get myself to go to the indoor pool on a Saturday and when it was 70 and sunny, so I played Frisbee with friends.  

Sunday: 35 Mile Mountain Bike Ride on Single track!  3,500Ft climbing; 4:30, 4:00 on the saddle; My friend Chris invited me on this epic Mtn Biking adventure with his friend Dave.  We started at Heil Ranch just outside of Boulder, biked to Picture Rock Trail, then into Lyons, to Hall Ranch, around Hall Ranch and back the same way.  This ride was killer.  It felt a lot like my long trail runs. With the exception to a few extra steep climbs, I could talk and was having a blast.  The down-hills were superb.  By the end my hands were toast, my back was very sore and overall I felt pretty exhausted, mission accomplished.  Dave and Chris are great athletes and preparing for the “Transalps” multi-day mountain bike ride in Europe. 

Monday: The moment of truth…. 2.5 miles on the elliptical (I wanted to be able to stop if my foot bothered me AT ALL), 4.5 miles on the bike path; Foot felt fine!  Aside from the frostbite on my foot from over-icing and not wrapping the icepack when I iced a few times, I didn’t feel any pain in my foot.  My legs were toast from the bike ride Sunday.  It was a very anxious run today, but I was/am very happy to be back running.  

It has been a very challenging two weeks since the race, but this last week has been relatively productive with the alternative training.  I’ll be patient this week, but I think next week will be back to par.  This strain was related to the trauma of rolling my ankle followed by 40 miles of trail racing, not from mal-training, so I don’t expect to see this injury again or a need to change my training approach.