So last week was a bit of a bust.
I only ran once on Thursday, and I was still feeling kinda crappy when I ran...but I really wanted to put my run in. It's so rough when I just want to be consistent...but I also don't want to run when I should be resting and be out of commission for like 3 weeks.
I feel good about my control and not overdoing it though! Now it's time to get back on track. My foot was hurting the day after my Thursday run, and I wanted to run on Saturday, but I decided to be good about it and skip the Saturday run and see how I was feeling on Sunday. On Sunday I had the day off and plans for brunch with a few friends. Wow did I eat a LOT! I went-up for 5 plates. I had bacon every time...Muahahahaha. I eat pretty well most of the time, so I just ate whatever I wanted to on Sunday. After the buffet I headed to my dad's for our family Thanksgiving. Now since I did an all you can eat buffet to start my day followed by this thanksgiving feast, i wanted to avoid alcohol so that I could head home at like 10 and go for my run. However, we ended-up playing cards, and I was having so much fun that I decided I would stay later and continue having fun, so no running. Since I was not going to be running, I promptly cracked open a beer! Good times were had by all and I stayed the night and slept on an air mattress on the floor. I headed home in the morning after a quick breakfast with my sister.
Upon arriving home, I had a nap in my warm comfy bed and woke-up feeling great and ready to run. My foot is still bugging me a little bit. It's the bottom, outside of my left foot. At first I figured it was just bruised, but a bit of fiddling with it leads me to believe it's a tender ligament of tendon. My plan for my run, take it really easy, avoid hills(my Thursday run had lots of hills) and make sure to run with good form. Everything felt good during my run, I was noticing that the outside of my left foot is hitting the ground a little harder than I would like. My right foot is working out just like I'd like, but I think I need to do some work on my outer calves and work-on bringing that up. When I was doing physio, we worked on that a lot and I think it helped, so lets see what we can do in the next few weeks working on that. The run felt good, my foot didn't hurt much, just noticeable when turning left which put a little extra stress on it. I think I'm going to look into some drills to work on improving stride technique to see if there's anything I can add into my runs to make sure my feet are doing what they should.
Next weekend I decided to do not one, but 2 races! I read about Trek or Treat, a Halloween fun run in Collingwood on October 18th. It's a night trail run that is supposed to be a ton of fun. I have a very good friend int hat area and his girlfriend runs, so I figured that would be an awesome time! a fun race and time visiting friends, win-win! After presenting the idea to them, they were both on board. A few days later, my friend informed me that there was another race that weekend, the next morning to be exact! A 5k and half marathon. Run Blue Mountain looks like it will be really fun! The only catch...I have not been training for this. I know for a fact that I can go out and run 21.1k on a whim. I'll just pick my pace and do it and I will likely do a PB, however, this is not race season for me! The urge to push really hard is so strong! Instead I decided to do the 5k. I have actually never ran a 5k. As a novice runner I turned-up my nose at 5k races. I assumed they were just short and that ANYONE can run one. 10k races seemed to be a good distance with half marathons being for serious runners and full marathons being for really serious runners. However, looking at the times people throw down for 5k races...I realize that the pace you need to be running at to place in those things is pretty nuts! After doing a few sprint triathlons, I now have a lot more respect for the 5k distance events. I put in a 22:30 5k to end my Barrie Triathlon this year, so I should be able to run a hell of a lot faster if I am only doing the run...but how much faster exactly? No freaking clue. the plan was to do a test run last week at 4:15/km and see how I feel. I did a 10k this year at 44:30, so that's 4:30. I figure 4:15 is doable, but I haven't been doing any higher intensity training lately at all. I wish I could throw one down and see how it goes, but I don't have time. I want to be good to my foot this week and make sure I am in good shape to race. If I finish feeling alright, I will shoot for doing a faster race, but it I finish feeling completely tapped, I will just shoot for doing the race at that pace.
I think a decent strategy is to aim for 4:15 and see how I feel at the midpoint. If I am feeling good, I will try to negative split the race. I'll just drop the hammer for the second half and see what happens. I expect to push extremely hard this race. I looked at the results from last year and there were only 3 people who came in under 20 minutes. The 5th place overall finished finished after 23 minutes...so hey, if I can come in under 20 minutes, I will place pretty well, but that is wishful thinking. If I stick to my 4:15 pace, that will put me at 21:15, so still respectable! As for the fun race, I will treat that as a training run and just take it easy. I'll probably run with like a 5:45 pace and run with my friend. I will try to not be competitive for that run, all I need to do is trip on a root and break an ankle.
This week will be back to normal. Swimming today was cancelled due to Thanksgiving, but I did my run. Tomorrow I have a test in my class, but I will come home and spin a bit. Wednesday will be a 7k run and swim class, Thursday will be work and class, then spin, Friday...I am scheduled to run 7k to complete my 21k this week, but I will be running 5k back to back on Saturday and Sunday, so I don't know if I will run. I may just do a short one to keep my stride tuned-up for my races. I really really need to get back into a good routine with my physio, so that starts tonight!
Till later,
The Inconsistent Triathlete
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