New Discoveries

[nannon82]

All these weeks I've been turning left at the fork in road and been faced with 'The Hill' at the end of my run. Today I decided to turn right and it was sooooo much better. The track was pretty much flat all the way, with a downhill run before reaching the road. Ok, so that'd the only downside, I have to run on the road for the last km or so. It's a quiet road though, and I mostly run in the mornings, so only two cars passed me today.

I was doing the stepping stones podcast for the fourth time. (I did Speed on Saturday, which was good, and planned to do Stamina today but wimped out after listening to Laura's explanation of what it entails!) My first attempt at Stepping Stones I didn't manage to run to the beat all the way through. My second and third attempts included a short walk in the middle to recover from a stitch. But today, on my new route, I ran to the beat right till the end, and didn't get a stitch! I almost stopped in the middle, but that was because the view was so breathtaking I wanted to take a photo. I didn't though, I kept running.

I'm still only covering about 3.7km in 30 minutes. Overall tho, I managed to do the whole 5km route in 45 minutes which is a whopping 10 minutes off my time from a week past Saturday! Not entirely sure how that works, but happy to go with it.

Now I just need to work out how to make my legs move further with 'short light fast steps'. Hmm.

[greenlegs Graduate]

Ten minutes off your time is an impressive difference!

[dottiemay Graduate]

Lovely the places you discover when you take a different route! And it looks like everything's heading in the right direction!

[nannon82 Graduate]

Thanks greenlegs and dottiemay. Unfortunately, it seems I managed to injure myself yesterday Didn't notice anything at the time, but I've since developed a really sore foot, which I think is a bit of peroneal tendonitis (self-diagnosed). If it is, then I'm likely to be on the bench for quite a while. I was really hoping it would have miraculously healed itself overnight, but it's much worse today. Lots of RICE called for I think.

Been wracking my brain trying to work out how I did it, and all I can think is that the new route was quite stony at one point, with a really sharp camber on the track. Must have landed on a sharp stone/gone over on my ankle a bit and not noticed. Gutted.

[Anniemurph Graduate in reply to nannon82]

Hey, this same thing happened to me! I did Stepping Stone on Sunday and yesterday my foot was really sore - still is today, actually. I'm fairly sure I didn't twist anything because my run was all pavements. I too couldn't do all the runs to the beat and had to walk to recover for a short while. Do you think that running faster is what's caused our foot problem? Mine's on the inside tendon though, but I'm RICE-ing like mad. I hope yours improves soon. I'm really fed up about it.

[nannon82 Graduate in reply to Anniemurph]

Oh no. Poor you.

I don't think my injury has got anything to do with the increase in speed. Yesterday was my fourth go at Stepping Stones, and I did Speed at the weekend too. Didn't have any pain or niggles at all.

I think it was probably because I went from running on really uneven, stony ground, to running on tarmac, which I've never done before. I'm just wearing regular trainers (which I've had for 14 years!!) so don't have any real protection for trail running.

Didn't notice any pain while I was running, or on my cool down walk. It was only when I stood up after writing my blog post-run that I noticed a twinge, and it's just got steadily worse. When I walk I can feel every stone, lump and bump on the ground. Agony. Sometimes it feels like my ankle is sprained too, but mostly the pain is on the outside edge of my foot.

Hope it sorts itself out soon.

[swanscot Graduate in reply to nannon82]

Oh no, sorry to hear about your foot pain. Are you having it a wee bit nippy in the mornings down your way? It was -7.5°C here this morning and I saw the forecast said -10°C for Aviemore.

[nannon82 Graduate]

Yeah, it was -6 yesterday morning! No snow/ice on the ground tho. And the mornings have been gloriously sunny. Desperate to get back out running, but I'm being sensible. Foot all tubi-gripped up