As much as I wrote a few flippant sentences regarding the pain in my shin on Wednesday, it actually had me worried a bit as the pain seemed to worsen as the day wore on. I tried icing it when I got home, but the real salvation seemed to arrive via the compression sleeve I wore at night and for my next run. By the morning the increasingly sharp pain had been reduced to a dull ache and right now I can only feel it because I’m actively thinking about it, otherwise I would not even notice it. Another niggle successfully overcome without the need for taking time off.
10 miles easy seems to be the default for me at the moment. In order to shake things up a bit I did something different on Thursday, namely hill sprints, once more of the all-out variety for about 15 seconds each, not that I'm timing them. One thing I noticed is that the HR didn’t want to go up very high, it barely scratched 160. The other thing was that the wave of nausea that hits me about 10 seconds AFTER each repeat seemed worse than usual. Some runners seem to take pride in the fact that they can run repeats until they puke but I am definitely not one of them. I was thankful for the fact that I was running on an empty stomach, and when the nausea became a bit too much I called an end to the workout. The best thing about losing count after only 3 or 4 repeats is that you don’t feel the need to do a certain number of repeats, you can just call it a day any time without feeling guilty.
I also added a few minutes of drills on our lawn when I got home. First I did them in my shoes and then in bare feet. As much as I’ve heard good things about that sort of thing I'm not sure I’ll continue with it, the overwhelming feeling was that my feet were bloody freezing on the cold ground. One thing is for sure, you won’t find me running down the road or trail in pretend barefoot shoes that cost more than my real shoes.
On the subject of shoes, one thing I usually do whenever I get a niggle is to throw out my oldest pair of runners, and as the oldest pair in active rotation had over 800 miles on them, they picked up a one-way ticket to the bin, the same reward they all get after half a year of faithful service.
- 15 Sep
- 5 miles, 44:07, 8:49 pace, HR 142
9 x 15 seconds all-out hill sprints, walking recovery down the hill - 16 Sep
- 10 miles, 1:17:38, 7:45 pace, HR 146
Yeah the feet don't like the cold ground particularly if it's wet - cold morning dew on grass only leads to blisters (afer a few miles). I agree the five fingers are overpriced for what you get (although mine were about 60% of the cost of a pair of my running shoes at the time I bought them) but they can be used throughout the winter.
ReplyDeleteWe're going through a wild change of seasons here too - yesterday 25, sunny, beautiful... today 10, cold, windy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the many things I like about the Frees is they last 'forever' especially at 35 miles a week ;)