Training Log Archive: W

Went for another test run of toe, its pretty solidly back to being okay, although its kind of white coloured.

Still, WOAH, Brazil just scored. That's not going to do well for my world cup pool.

Toe has been feeling better past couple of day, so went out for a short run. In general it felt alright, less pain and more "discomfort". Modified my stride a little to take pressure of my toe, back to classic heel strike but without toe-off. That must have looked.... interesting. Nonetheless, will hit the gym tomorrow, and hopefully be back in business on Tuesday to run my face off again. Speed work I think is in the cards.

Back to the weight room for some stationary cycling and endurance strength. Toe not quite as painful today, but still unhappy. Its the pressure that its the most bothersome, being barefoot is really not so bad, save for the occasional pulsing of aching, like right now, come to think of it.

The fact that there is nothing visibly wrong with it is what makes me the most nervous.

C • So many people seem to have... 2

Limped around the weight room again. My toe aches sometimes during the night, and ironically hurts the least when I don't have any shoes on, but it hasn't tempted me to go for another barefoot run just yet. Was going to go to Birmingham today but figured if I wanted this to get better, I should stay off my feet a little so I can get back to running as soon as possible. For now, its back to the (stationary) bike.

Despite a pink-ish purple-ish toe, went to the gym and did some endurance strength.

Wednesday night orienteering event at Coombe Abbey. I'd put two workouts today, because in the morning I went for a barefoot run, and about 8 minutes in, I kicked a rock (not intentionally). My Vibrams immediately turned bloody red and I turned around a made a beeline home, where it kept bleeding for a while. Ironically the toenail wasn't broken or anything, so I don't really know what happened to it, phsyically.

Either way, it meant that putting pressure on it hurt a lot, but it was BBQ night at orienteering, and I wasn't going to miss that! So, I ran the course at a tempo-y jog, which actually turned out really great because I was a bit more careful and navigated better than when I was in a hurry. Still, I tried to take bearings in open fields to practice, and they still seemed pretty horrendous. I'm bad with remembering to aim off, which I think is part of my problem. I need to write some reminder notes of all things I must remember to do in a race, because clearly I can't keep them all straight.

C • Reminder notes 6

Did some sprint-poos, 1:40, 1:30, 1:20, 1:10, and etc. to 10 seconds. Didn't feel wickedly fast. Finished it off with a little 10 minute tempo back to the Canley Ford and then back home.

Last day of hiking in Snowdonia, up to Carnedd Llewlyn. I'm sure the top was nice, but we couldn't see anything with the cloud. Still pleasant, though, a predominantly flat or gentle hike, , so a bit more running this time around.

Climb up the Tryvan. The most scrambl-y of all the hikes we did. At the top are Adam and Eve, two oddly shaped rocks that have flat tops, they're almost close enough to jump across, but the fact that there's like a 20 foot drop on one side with a square metre landing before a 500 foot drop. So, you fall off the rock, smash on one edge, then roll off and, you know, die.

So, while I had initially planned on doing it, I got up there, said I was going to, and then Paul made me wait until the camera was ready, and standing up there for several minutes made me face my mortality, and it a pansied out. I'm ashamed, I know. It was also very windy, and I'm sure visibility wasn't 100% too. Yep, it was the weather, nothing to do with me at all.

Hiking in Snowdonia National Park, across the Grib Goch, up Snowdonia, and etc. Called the Snowdonia Horseshoe. Ran the flats, hiked the climbs pretty darn fast.

I wouldn't necessarily say it counts and "training" per se, though.

Cruise workout, 10-25-20. The 25 minute was a tempo run, and was very pleasant. I should consider doing them more often in every run.

War Memorial Sprint. Also didn't feel fast, but that could have been the monsoon I was running in. Made some silly mistakes going out of controls too, because I can't seem to react fast enough to changes in direction in and out control. Going to need to devise some sort of strategy to that. Do you approach the control already planning the next one and risk not finding it in the first place? Always my debate.

A very light run to go buy my new piece of junk bike. Its pretty bad, but it was cheap, and it rolls, and it stops, so, score! No more walking everywhere, and can make it to the bigger supermarkets faster. Time to track down the last few ingredients of nanaimo bars.

A very pleasant little unintentional barefoot run. Was going to take the day off, but, what the heck, I was bored. My calves were not happy, though.

A fairly pleasant two hour toodle,calves were mega sore from yesterday's intervals, and I'm sure this run didn't help them. Did a further distance along the "Coventry Way" a brief loop around a cute park, and saw many footpath branches that I'm sure would be delightful to follow, except it takes 45 minutes to even get to the coventry way itself, unfortunately.

Hammered out some 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 minute intervals. My GPS says I stayed pretty consistent throughout, despite feeling pretty cooked by the 8 minuter.

Actually, upon further review... not so much. Dropped from average of 3:47 to 4:00, though that's "moving time" as opposed to average, which I should figure out the actual meaning of.... Sweated a lot, had lots of thoughts.

Ran to Coventry Runner and back. Wasn't exactly the most scenic run in the world, but, saw the store, it was very nice, and actually about 1/3 the size of Fast Trax, if that's possible! There was also a bunch of Nike clothes that I wanted, but I managed to resist, thankfully. Also a slick White Pro Zero Extreme top that was on sale. HOT! Both appearance and probably functionally.

C • Colour 2

Hit up a quickie barefoot run.

Hit the weight room to do some mostly leg strength with a bit of arm strength interspersed. At some point along the way during my lunges that my knee lump, heretofore named my "Kneematoma" was actually growing as I was doing weights. I hadn't noticed it until then, as I reached the bottom of the lunge, it was big. Impressively big, and as my knee straightens it goes away. No pain, just a really big, creepy lump. Perhaps next time I'll try to take a picture of it.

Wednesday night event on terrain apparently very similar to British Night Champs next year. Ran fine, I suppose, but frustrated by poor navigation. Its these kind of races that I really feel the lack of coaching hurts, since I feel this sort of stuff should be very smooth and being efficient should come easy. I'm going to make more of an effort to buckle down and do some real post-race evaluation of my route choice and look closer at my maps. That should be a certain amount of help, though really its the split second decisions at the time that truly bring me down.

Decided to skip this weekend's events as they're pretty far away and I think I'm on my 8th or so consecutive weekend of racing. Come to think of it, I think I've raced at least once and often twice every weekend since coming home for Easter. Well, I've always been a fan of "race yourself into shape", though my skin and bones are feeling it a little. I only have one ice pack!

Hit up the Strength room after my class was unexpectedly moved. Long story for a different day. Did some cycling, pumped some iron, noted that my balance is not quite what is used to be, will definitely do more lunges and squats on the instability ball.

Also got tickets to Wimbledon today! Court 1, quarter-finals. That will be very, very cool.