Lets get the potential bad news out of the way first. I strongly suspect I have a Tarsal Navicular stress fracture (stress fracture of the lower ankle) on the inside of the right foot.
I started to feel it at mile 15 last week and didn’t think much of it since the pain was gone the next day, but this past week it started hurting at mile 11 and I turned and headed home and stopped my run at mile 15 and it hurt for a couple of days.
After much discussion with friends, people in the medical field and my Coach, I strongly suspect it is the beginning of a stress fracture. Unfortunately, these are hard to diagnose or see on X-rays until after they have healed, but you have to assume the worse for treatment.
I feel like this is somewhat due to my style of running. In short course I have taught myself to run on the balls or fore foot portion of my feet which has given me much more speed in 5k and 10 races. However, it does put more stress on this portion of the foot where my injury is.
So right now working with Coach Sonni, I have ceased all running for two weeks and I will give it a 2-mile test run prior to the half-ironman race in Williamsburg, which is the race to validate my Kona slot at the World Championships in Hawaii. As you can imagine this is a bit concerning but I feel like as long as I can make it through the qualifying race in Williamsburg, I will have 5 weeks for it to heal.
…and what about running. There may be a chance I do not run anymore until the race and concentrate on the bike and swim since my bike shoes are hard soled and it doesn’t affect this injury. It’s really starting to get interesting now.
Now on a lighter note:
I was laughing as I wrote the following “coach feedback” e-mail to Sonni earlier this week (as I do every couple of weeks) because the distances I am doing in all three disciplines are crazy right now. So here’s what I wrote…It’s a good thing he understands my humor.
Swimming: I need entertainment because 1 hour and 15 minutes in the pool is pure isolationism and torture and the silence other than the splashing of water could possibly lead me to the insane asylum.
Run: I feel like Forrest Gump, just running to be running and running some more with nowhere in particular to go.
Bike: I am getting the “Hamster Syndrome” After about 80 miles I just feel like I’m on the Hamster wheel and I’m too stupid to quit and I am seeing the exact same scenery as I did the last 4 times I passed this part of the loop. I can’t even get the dogs to chase me anymore to add excitement because they’re so use to seeing me now.
I have to have humor through all of this training or I would go completely crazy. Let is be known, I would not be a good professional cyclist because these 100 miles days, like today, are a bit too much to do for an extended period of time.
One of the bright spots I am having though is swimming. I have really gotten to the point where I can really put a hard effort into the swim for distances less than 2500 yards (about 1.5 miles) and maintain a good pace. I have not been able to do this in the past. So the training is really paying off here.
One last funny thing that happened this week on my long run was I almost lost my spare water and fuel. I stash my water and nutrition mix on my course so at the halfway point of the run I can stop refill on water and Infinit nutrition mix.
So as I approached my refill point there was a truck load of Mexican Landscapers who were part of the landscaping crew here in the neighborhood. As I got closer I saw them get out of the truck, grab my bottles and Infinit mix and start holding it up trying to figure it out. As I got close enough I started to yell for them to stop and put it down before they dumped it into their truck. None of them spoke English but I think they all figured out what was going on and the guy who was grabbing it was embarrassed and all of his buddies were laughing at him for getting caught. There was certainly no hard feelings as a matter of fact I saw them later and they all were waving and at me and they started laughing at their buddy again.
Nothing much else to cover this week. It was just another build week and I am sure by now you have all heard me talk enough about the distances and how I do not look forward to these high intensity weeks, so I will stop it right here.
I will touch base next week as usual!
I started to feel it at mile 15 last week and didn’t think much of it since the pain was gone the next day, but this past week it started hurting at mile 11 and I turned and headed home and stopped my run at mile 15 and it hurt for a couple of days.
After much discussion with friends, people in the medical field and my Coach, I strongly suspect it is the beginning of a stress fracture. Unfortunately, these are hard to diagnose or see on X-rays until after they have healed, but you have to assume the worse for treatment.
I feel like this is somewhat due to my style of running. In short course I have taught myself to run on the balls or fore foot portion of my feet which has given me much more speed in 5k and 10 races. However, it does put more stress on this portion of the foot where my injury is.
So right now working with Coach Sonni, I have ceased all running for two weeks and I will give it a 2-mile test run prior to the half-ironman race in Williamsburg, which is the race to validate my Kona slot at the World Championships in Hawaii. As you can imagine this is a bit concerning but I feel like as long as I can make it through the qualifying race in Williamsburg, I will have 5 weeks for it to heal.
…and what about running. There may be a chance I do not run anymore until the race and concentrate on the bike and swim since my bike shoes are hard soled and it doesn’t affect this injury. It’s really starting to get interesting now.
Now on a lighter note:
I was laughing as I wrote the following “coach feedback” e-mail to Sonni earlier this week (as I do every couple of weeks) because the distances I am doing in all three disciplines are crazy right now. So here’s what I wrote…It’s a good thing he understands my humor.
Swimming: I need entertainment because 1 hour and 15 minutes in the pool is pure isolationism and torture and the silence other than the splashing of water could possibly lead me to the insane asylum.
Run: I feel like Forrest Gump, just running to be running and running some more with nowhere in particular to go.
Bike: I am getting the “Hamster Syndrome” After about 80 miles I just feel like I’m on the Hamster wheel and I’m too stupid to quit and I am seeing the exact same scenery as I did the last 4 times I passed this part of the loop. I can’t even get the dogs to chase me anymore to add excitement because they’re so use to seeing me now.
I have to have humor through all of this training or I would go completely crazy. Let is be known, I would not be a good professional cyclist because these 100 miles days, like today, are a bit too much to do for an extended period of time.
One of the bright spots I am having though is swimming. I have really gotten to the point where I can really put a hard effort into the swim for distances less than 2500 yards (about 1.5 miles) and maintain a good pace. I have not been able to do this in the past. So the training is really paying off here.
One last funny thing that happened this week on my long run was I almost lost my spare water and fuel. I stash my water and nutrition mix on my course so at the halfway point of the run I can stop refill on water and Infinit nutrition mix.
So as I approached my refill point there was a truck load of Mexican Landscapers who were part of the landscaping crew here in the neighborhood. As I got closer I saw them get out of the truck, grab my bottles and Infinit mix and start holding it up trying to figure it out. As I got close enough I started to yell for them to stop and put it down before they dumped it into their truck. None of them spoke English but I think they all figured out what was going on and the guy who was grabbing it was embarrassed and all of his buddies were laughing at him for getting caught. There was certainly no hard feelings as a matter of fact I saw them later and they all were waving and at me and they started laughing at their buddy again.
Nothing much else to cover this week. It was just another build week and I am sure by now you have all heard me talk enough about the distances and how I do not look forward to these high intensity weeks, so I will stop it right here.
I will touch base next week as usual!
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