Monday, December 29, 2008

Ouch

I’ve failed to mention something in my few recent posts. About 10 days ago I started to develop a pain near the outside ankle of my right leg, about an inch above and towards the front of the leg. Even though I can feel it pretty much all the time, it doesn’t bother me during the day. However, it can become rather painful at times when running, especially downhill. From looking at pictures of the foot on the web it could be the anterior inferior tibiofibular ligament, but that’s just my own wild guess. And anyway, knowing the name of the part in itself doesn’t really help in treatment. My ice pack is in Kerry, and I don’t believe in painkillers, so at the moment I’m not doing much at all about it. It has gone past the stage where I can just ignore it, but has not quite reached the bit where I admit defeat and start resting yet. When Niamh asked the other day how my run was, my answer of “my foot hurts like hell but the rest of me feels great” I was only half-joking.

So far I’ve been able to keep pretty much to the schedule, even though I’ve muddled up the days of the workout a bit. It’s great to be able to sleep in until 6:30, run 18 miles and still be home for breakfast before the other adults are awake. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that this morning, Maia must have woken as I was leaving, and Niamh wasn’t too impressed by the early start. I ran from Stillorgan to Killiney, up the hill and down the other side. Since that didn’t deliver the required mileage I ran to Cabinteely Park on my way home and started churning out 4 loops on that. With my sore foot I was getting slower and slower until I spotted another runner ahead of me on the third loop. My competitive juices got stirred and I dropped the pace from 8:50 to 7:20 until I caught up. Unfortunately I went back into jogging mode on the way back home.

It was rather cold this morning, the fields were covered in a thick layer of frost which made it easy to imagine running through a winter wonderland. Unfortunately at times the path was covered in ice as well, which made for very uneasy footing and was partially responsible for the pedestrian pace today. At one stage I actually slipped but somehow managed to execute a perfect rolling landing and didn’t get hurt. That could have ended a lot worse.

There is not much else to say at the moment. We’re going to head for home tomorrow and I’ll take it easy for two days, running wise; not just because of my hurt foot (I refuse to call it an injury) but also because there is a 10k on New Year’s Day, and I’ll give that a go. I don’t know if I will be able to run properly with that ankle, but I’ll find out. If it’s too bad I’m going to miss the 10-mile race in Mallow for the fourth year in a row.
28 Dec
10 miles, 1:19:23, 7:56 pace, HR 152
29 Dec
18 miles, 2:34:41, 8:35 pace, HR 144

Weekly mileage: 89+ miles

9 comments:

  1. Have you checked your shoes out for wear!
    IF IN DOUBT VISIT A SPORTS INJURY SPECIALIST, it can save months of pain and often the answer to the problem can be easy to solve.
    Always be self aware when running, monitoring the pain and working out what your doing wrong!
    Are you landing to much in front of your center of gravity, do you strike hard on your heels running downhill!
    Learn to run more behind your center of gravity landing on your forefoot to midfoot, READ 'JUST UNDO IT' BY JACK NIRENSTEIN. why spend hours training with an inefficient style when with a little thought you can run smoother and faster, I guess it depends if you still want to be running in 5 years time or be left at the side of the road with chronic injury problems!!!

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  2. If you foot is still feeling sore during the week would you consider foregoing the 10k on Thursday for the slightly slower pace that the Malow 10 miler will require and giving you that extra 10 days of relative rest.

    Take it easy either way and hopefully i'll see you in Mallow.

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  3. rest that foot and keep an eye on the big picture - BOSTON!!!

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  4. Bricey has the best advice.

    "Inefficient"? I would hardly call your style inefficient. Granted I've never seen you run, and for all I know your head bobs around more than Paula Radcliffe's, but your impressive gains do not point to inefficiency.

    Anyway, the only thing you could do wrong is to push too hard on it now and pay for it in April.

    Rest does a body good.

    The mind doesn't appreciate it so much, but the body does.

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  5. LANDING ON YOUR HEELS WITH YOUR FOOT OUT IN FRONT OF YOUR CENTER OF GRAVITY IS JUST PLAIN INEFFICIENT!
    How can anyone say otherwise!
    Its like putting your legs out in front of you when you were a kid on a bike without brakes trying to stop!
    OF COURSE I CAN ONLY BASE MY ASSUMPTIONS ON THOMAS'S PHOTOGRAPHS, but heavy heel striking especially running downhill will cause all manner of injury problems!!!

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  6. I agree 100% with Andrew.

    Take it easy with your foot, there is still loads of time prior to Boston. And don't lose sight of all the miles you've logged already this year. Better to be healthy first.

    Good luck with the 10-k should you run and regardless, all the best to your and your family in 2009!

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  7. I suppose Irish Whiskey would be the ultimate healing elixir.

    My neck started hurting me after the Oktoberfest Marathon last October in Leavenworth but when I slipped an fell hard on a training run on trails I cracked my neck and it's felt much better since. Perhaps you should have fallen harder when you slipped on the ice!

    Yeah, Irish Whiskey, that's the ticket.

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  8. Then there's the famous Power's Irish whiskey which I've heard can cure untold sorts of ailments. Andrew is such a troublemaker!

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