There is No Substitute for Experience

At this time, 21 days from now I hope to be enjoying a nice breakfast and getting my 100 mile medal for completing the RR100 Trail Run. This morning I ran about 9.25 miles over near Percy Warner park with the usual Sunday am crowd. It was a fairly easy run, averaging about a 8:30/mile until the last 1.5 miles where I picked up the pace and ran it in at about a 6:30/mile.

I'm nursing a Posterior Tibial injury. It flared up yesterday on the treadmille and I had to cut my run short and finished at 16 miles instead of 20 miles, as planned. I took 2 alleve and iced it for 20 minute last night and did some research. Here's what I learned...

1. Left untreated it can cause the tendon to rupture and collapse of the arch
2. Treatment includes (i) Ice 2X/day for 20 minutes each session (ii) stretch calf (iii) wear shoes with a strong arch with limited flexibility (iv)try not to over pronate or do not turn your foot so that your big toe side of your foot does not strike first.

So my plan is simple. lower my miles from now till my race, ice it, take Alleve, wear the proper shoes and try to run on even surfaces. I think that the cause of the injury is due to the # of miles that I've put on using my Kona K-Swiss racing flats. They have officially been retired as of today.

Last week mileage ended up around 35-40 miles, about 10 miles short of plan - but an important part of training is listening to your body when you have an injury and rest. I'm not as trained up for the RR100 as I'd like to be, but then again I really don't think that anyone is. Running 100 miles isn't easy no matter how much one has trained. Patience and simple determination will be my race dace corner posts.

My weight has been consistently around 180-182 lbs for the last 60 days. Part of my training has included strength training and more specifically I've been doing quad and calf work outs with heavier weights, but still with high reps to build muscle. I think that I may have added a pound or two from the leg workouts. This is new for my routine. My thought was that running trails and hilly ones at that will require more muscle to avoid overuse injuries involving the tendons and knees. Another important part of staying healthy has been to get my weekly massage as well as doing a much better job of stretching.

There is something to be said about experience......for all you young bulls......stay away from the stove.

Cheers.... The Conquistador.