Still Going

Deep down I actually pretty much knew it already when I wrote my last post, even if I had not quite accepted it yet. As soon as I said it out loud, the injury got worse all of a sudden. Until then, the heel had tended to be sore for some early parts of the run but the discomfort always went away. Then I did a short, easy 5 mile run and for some reason that particular run really seemed to aggravate it. I was hobbling around all Saturday, and even I recognised that the planned 17 miler the following day would be a very, very bad idea, so I binned it and the next few days as well.

Then we jetted off to Crete for our first family holiday in 3 years, the same place Niamh and me had been to for our first anniversary, many, many years ago. Of course it was way too hot in Crete to do some proper running and I was still nursing my heel (which I suspect might have been early stages of PF, but who knows for sure!), so all I did were a few short runs in the morning when it wasn't quite as hot yet, and always with a rest day in-between. The villa we stayed in was on top of a monster of a hill, not that high but brutally steep, so I definitely had some interesting times on the way home. 

By the time we flew back home my heel seemed to have healed completely but unfortunately I had also acquired an ear infection, almost certainly from dipping into the pool all the time (you would have too at those temperatures!). The flight home was distinctly painful, and I like to think I have a pretty high pain threshold. My son had an ear infection as well but his went away after three days while mine got worse and worse until I finally gave in to Niamh and went to the doctor for some ear drops and antibiotics. They have not kicked in yet, but fingers crossed.

Back on home soil I re-started my marathon training but on a slightly reduced mileage. The 18 mile long run last week was only 15, the midweek runs of 12 and 11 miles were cut down to 10 and 9+, and they definitely all felt long enough, alright.

So I will keep an eye on things. The schedule would have me do 20 miles this Sunday but that's definitely not going to happen. I hope my endurance will eventually catch up because I do need a few long runs before race day, but so far I'll try and err on the side of caution for once.

Still going. Slowly. Ah well.