Sunday, August 28, 2011

Dammit.

Alright, so it was go time today. It was a fresh week and, while I'm still fighting back a few sniffles and general malaise, I was ready for a decent 3ish mile run/walk session to get me into the swing of things. I didn't expect anything special from today and it was going to be a very easy run.

The Weather Network is not usually known for its accurate forecasts, so it was my fault for planning an outdoor run today. Friday's forecast for Sunday: 25C, sunny. Saturday's forecast for Sunday: 22C, partly cloudy. Saturday night's forecast for Sunday: 20C, cloudy with showers. In the end, it was generally overcast and hovering around 17C. Kind of perfect for running, if it wasn't for the 40kt winds gusting through. I work at the airport, so it's not like I'm in a nice sheltered area with lots of protection via buildings. It also felt like a day in October. Kind of nice, but reminded me that I have to go back to school and have yet to figure out Carleton's WebCT and how to watch my classes on demand. Anyway, back to the point of this paragraph: it was a treadmill run.

I started off the run at 4.0 mph. It was FREEZING in the building. My work always blasts its a/c way too high, but it felt even colder knowing that outside was about the same (if not warmer) than my work. Seriously, I do not want to see their hydro bill. It was so cold that I "warmed up" for half a mile. It took me that long to even just feel like it was room temperature. I had originally planned to do a very easy 4.0-4.5-5.0-5.5-6.0 interval set, but when I hit 4.5, my peroneal started hurting a LOT on my right foot. I increased the speed hoping it was just the awkwardness of that half walk/half jog pace. It eased up a little bit, so I decided to ditch the original plan for a 5.0-6.0 set with a 0.1 mph increase every 0.1 mi (the usual). I made it to the top, and halfway down before I had to give up. My tendon was really pissed off at me.

I'm absolutely gutted about this. I was forced to take a week off from running because of a cold, so I was hoping the tendon would settle down with some rest. It's super tender to touch right now and I'm really worried that I won't make my mileage this week. I can't have injuries bothering me already... it's only been 6 weeks since I started my training plan! Luckily (or not so luckily), it's an existing injury so I'm hoping that once I get back to my weekly treatments and take the exercises for it a bit more seriously, things will start to feel better. This has me really worried for my 5K, though. I was planning to run a 3K this weekend (choice between 3 or 8 km, and given that I haven't run for a week and my tendon is killing after a km, I'm choosing 3), but I think I might have to ditch that idea.

After mulling the idea for a few minutes, I took off my shoes and tried "barefoot running" on the treadmill for 0.1 miles. Now, granted, I "ran" at 4.2 mph. It is very different to running with shoes, and my feet felt heavy and clumsy slamming down unprotected on the treadmill, but I am officially intrigued. My tendon didn't feel as sore when I was running with my bare feet. I might consider a pair of minimalist shoes. Definitely not something I'm going to attempt for long/hard runs at the moment, but people have been singing its praises all over the place. We'll see. I'm due to get my orthotics this week (supposed to be last week, but I was sick and didn't make it to the appt), so I'm hoping that they help a little bit, but who knows. This could get interesting...

I'll see how the tendon feels on tomorrow's run. If it's still really bugging me, I might just have to make this week a cross-training week and work on building up some strength. I will complete the 14 mpw soon, I promise!!

As it is now... 2.6 down, 11.5 to go.

No comments:

Post a Comment