So the Pick and Shovel Race (see last post) was amazing. It all came together and I had a great day of racing culminating in a second place finish and some amazing prizes. It also gave me some amazing confidence for the up coming 100 Miler.
Inevitably I was very sore after the fact. As the days came and went, the doms faded, but my feet continued to hurt on top. Of course one considers something like a stress fracture, but with the same pain being felt on both side fairly equally, I was pretty sure it wasn't that. I tried a few runs, but generally they did not feel good. So I walked, I biked, and I used my elliptical runner.
I looked at what the issue was, and traced it down to the extensor tendons in my feet (these are used to flex the toes basically). But why did it happen. I did use a new shoe for race day that I only spent a little time in. Did they cause it? Did I maybe tie them too tight? I had them tied on fairly snug for the first 10K run of the Pick and Shovel and had thought about swapping to another more cushioned shoe, but opted not to as I had such a good rhythm going. I stuck with this idea for awhile but ultimately the reality was my calves and shins were just not trained enough for the downhills of the day. This left my shins so tight that they were essentially pulling on my extensors and when I would run they would tighten even more.
The recovery from this race last close to 3 weeks. I worked on my foot strength, visited my chiropractor for some fascia release, and kept busy doing a variety of exercises that were not running.
Did I lose some fitness? Yup, I'd say my top end power had decrease significantly. Was the rest needed? Yup. So I don't regret things. I did also learn a lot from this. Work not just on the uphills, but also the downhills. Work on calf strength. While my 100 miler is not going to be very hilly, knowing your weaknesses and not dealing with them is just opening you up for failure. Small hills add up over 100 miles, so don't give them a chance to be the thing that takes you out of the race.
While February was a write off from a running stand point, it was a bit of recovery I needed after training long distance and hard since last October. It was a chance to work on other areas of my fitness, and also a chance to recover and reset mentally. It broke apart some inadvertent run streaks I had, which I feel will help me be a stronger runner overall.
Last weekend I hit my longest week of running since December and my 100 mile week. Add in my power hiking and I was pretty close to that 100 mile number. I hit a 38 kilometer run that ended with uphill marathon pace for 4 kilometers. My fitness is back, my training is back on track, though really it never left.
Now my focus is even more time on feet, more hills for power and strength, and lots of tempo work, because it is easier to drive a fast car at 70% throttle than a slower car at 100% throttle when you are trying to get somewhere on time. Speed in training
makes the slow on race day feel a lot better.
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