Flummoxed

Three weeks to go so I thought I'd have a intensive training week this week before tapering down for the big day. So, start with a nice long run on Sunday I thought. Off I went for a nice steady 25 miler on the road. Loaded up with a litre and half of isotonic, energy bars and good old banana and honey sarnies I set off on a damp but warm day. My right ankle / achilles made itself felt but it didn't hurt so I soon forgot about it. Up and down the Chilterns I went, nipping through Champneys in the process. The first fifteen miles were fine. The hills felt particularly flat and easy after my week in the Alps. I was very pleased with my performance until my calf muscles started to feel tight. Then the pain down the outside of my right knee that I've had in the past, and assume is a referred pain from my ankle, appeared. I persisted on but was not a happy bunny.

I'd drunk some 500ml of isotonic drink per hour and had my energy food so I should have been fine. The distance shouldn't have been a problem having done simlar runs several times recently without any problem. I'd rested all the previous week apart from one treadmill session so I should have been well recovered from the Alps. None of this seemed to matter as I plodded on. My legs were aching but strangely didn't feel tired. I couldn't run down hill properly because of the aching and eventually running uphill became too painful due the pain in the side of my knee. To cap it all my Polar ran out of memory so I've no record of what my heart was doing after 20 miles. I bent down to rub my knee and found the inside of my knees and my shins covered in a layer of thin white froth. I tasted it. It was salty. I kept going till around 24 miles on the grounds that if this was the real event then I'd not give in but I was worried that I might injure myself so I called home and got a lift for the final mile or two.

Here's the mystery: when I got home I found I had lost six pounds in weight and my urine was very dark (but not red as in my previous long run) and my legs were cramping but I'd been drinking sufficient fluids. What the hell was going on? I haven't cramped in months. Was that white froth actually salt from my sweat? I can't imagine that I'd sweated enough to cause all that damage. I'm still puzzled and not a little worried as I don't understand what went wrong and until I do I might screw up the actual marathon. If I feel as bad after fifteen miles on the actual event then I'm in for a horrific time as that's when the climbing starts. Knowing the route as I do now I'm not sure that I could finish if I felt as bad as I did on Sunday.

Now my legs ache too much to run so I've lost a few days a irreplaceable training. I might try a bike ride tomorrow. I know this was never going to be easy but I could do without this especially at this time.

Bollocks!

Head, shoulders, knees and toes.....

I've rested my ankle and it seems to be repairing nicely but out of the blue my left knee is giving me some jip. I woke up yesterday morning and my knee was very sore. It can't be due to running as I haven't done any (could it be due to not running?) since Sunday. It's a wierd sort of pain as it feels like my knee is in a vice. It can also disappear for a while then reappear suddenly. I'm lost as to what it is and what's causing it. I did have some similar pains back in the Winter and they never lasted long enough to bother getting them looked into. I'm hoping this will go away too.

I went to see the podiatrist yesterday too. He examined my feet, took some measurements of the pronation and did a parotec test. This consisted of putting some special insoles into my running shoes. These contained a load of pressure sensors and were wired up to a box strapped to my waist. I then had to run up and down the car park while it recorded the pressure on my feet. It appears that my left foot is actually worse than my right in term of pronation but I'm not putting much pressure on my right forefoot meaning that I don't get maximum takeoff on that side. Anyway, using those measurements and a scan of the contours of my foot he made a pair of orthotic insoles. These will stop my foot rolling over so much allowing my Achilles to slide over the heel more easily and allowing me to use more of my forefoot in moving forwards. I did a test run using them. The right heel is not fully healed as I can still feel it, the knee behaved itself while running and the insoles felt fine in my road shoes (Asics) but a bit tighter in my trail shoes (Salomons). I should really try them out a lot more before gong to Switzerland (on Monday) but I want to rest my heel a bit more and I'm not sure how my knee will react.


Really cheesed off and worried about this knee. Hope it doesn't spoil my week.

Frustration

Only five weeks to go and my niggling right Achilles has decided to play up. After my run on Sunday it is very sore. I'm not totally convinced it is the tendon itself as that isn't tender to touch. Could be a heel spur problem or some such thing. I'm going to Interlaken next Monday for a training week so I'm desperate to get it sorted. I've got an appointment with a podiatrist on Friday to have a set of tests (gait analysis, foot pressure etc) with a view to getting some orthotic insoles made up. This will set me back well over £300 but it has to be done. It needs doing anyway as my right foot and ankle is a mess. It massively overpronates and I reckon the arch has collapsed. Hopefully that might sort it out. In the meantime I can't run, just when I was looking to step things up. I went out on the bike on Monday evening (assuming that won't aggravate the problem) so I can keep my fitness levels ticking over but I'm pretty peed off at the moment. Any chance of getting near 4:30 on the Jungfrau has gone. I'm just hoping that I make it to the start line now.

Bummer!

Pedal Power

Sunday: A quick puncture repair and I'm off. A quick dash back to the house for my forgotten drink bottles and I'm off again. Spent the next three hours going up and down the Chiltern Hills like a yo-yo. I don't know who named the hills around here but they had some imagination as well as a sense of humour (remember The Crong, The Twist and The Hale from a previous post?). After Cobblershill came Hotley Bottom (great place to go after a curry?) later followed by Kop Hill amongst others.

I'd expected to get the usual cycling muscle ache not having been on the bike in ages but it didn't happen. I reckon there must be some truth in hill running using the same muscles as cycling as I also found the hills fairly easy. At least I didn't get out of the saddle once and didn't have to resort to the granny chain ring. Not bad on a squidgy mountain bike. As a long term roadie brought up on the mantra of short wheelbases and rigid frames it gripes a bit riding a bendy springy mountain bike. All that energy going into squashing springs and dampers. Suppose it doesn't matter if I'm not looking for a fast time. It felt good to be back on the bike.

The achilles felt sore during the ride but doesn't seem to have suffered for it. On Monday night I took the dog and my achilles for a test run. Did half an hour off-road, fairly flat and it felt fine. Not sure what's going on with the achilles. I can still feel it but it doesn't seem to suffer from running. Just have to keep an eye on it I suppose.

Off to bed. G'night.

Ramping it Up

Further to my previous post about gradients I decided to try a little experiment on the treadmill. So after a warm up I did 3 miles at 5mph on a 10% incline. It felt very comfortable to start with. My heart rate was 123 bpm once I'd settled in but it slowly but surely trended upwards over the three miles finishing at 135. At that rate I'd have been struggling after another mile as my rate approached 140. I'm fairly happy with that as it gives me something to work with over the next couple of months.

What I'm not so happy with is that I've got a slight niggle in my right achilles tendon. I can't feel it when I'm running but I can when walking. I once lost a whole years running when I tore that achilles. I don't suppose it helped that I tore it at the begining of a run, finished the run then three days later did a two-day mountain marathon on it. It was a team event so I couldn't let my partner down at the last minute. Not the best treatment though. So, I'd fancied trying a full marathon length training run today but am not going to risk it. I'm off out on the bike now instead.

On yer bike!