Daily Archives: May 8, 2016

Giving myself a rest. – And Hills?

May 8th,   Sunday around noon

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Had a wonderful 11 hours sleep last night.  Really needed that.  I don’t have any races planned for the near future.  So I’m going to back off and relax.  I will try to take advantage of the new membership in the center State Hospital exercise facility.

 

 

I have been experiencing a lot of pain in the left foot since the race.  I can’t explain what it’s all about.  All last night and this morning it was very difficult to walk.  It’s not anything to do with the Achilles tendon.  I hope that it is not plantar fasciitis. That’s a condition that I had maybe 20 years ago while I was still teaching.   Haven’t had that sensation in a long time.  But plantar fasciitis is difficult to manage, a genuine pain in the butt.  This doesn’t really feel like that.  It’s on the right side of the arch  just forward of the heel.  It hurts when I push off on my toes. The general feeling is like a bruise, as if I stepped on a rock while I was running.  I felt no pain at all whIle  I was running, but after the race it felt like there was a cramp in my arch.  I thought I would walk it off and things would be fine, but it has persisted this morning.  I am tempted to use ice on it but have lost faith in ice.  Since I stopped using ice on my Achilles  they have seemed to improve  dramatically.  So I am  putting heat on this morning and being very careful.

 

Training for Hills

I need thoughts on this subject from anyone who would like to contribute.

Yesterday’s unexpectedly weak experience on the hill has gotten me to thinking.  I have always believed that if a distance runner is aerobically fit, Hills would not be an issue during a race.  I think the question needs to be asked;

Do you have to train on Hills to run Hills successfully in a competition?    and

How does this apply to the plus70runner in particular?

(I don’t know why this machine is capitalizing the word ‘Hill’ every time I say it.)  LOL

I’m thinking that having reached the 25-minute range for a 5K that I need to reevaluate my goals  and my training.  I was very happy with yesterday’s performance clearly.  But the experience on the hill made me think that maybe I am reaching the upside limit for the kind of training that I’m doing. I’ve never attempted Hill training because I didn’t feel that I was a serious Runner who needed to do that kind of work.  Now I believe that if I want to go to another level, in the lower twenties,  I would have to elevate  my training.  I will have to do harder workouts, probably longer workouts.  I thought this would just come naturally overtime, and I could just enjoy the whole experience. Maybe that is the attitude I have to take and not get too crazy.  However, I do remember running a 5k two years ago being so impressed by a 70year old guy that ran 25:30 to win the + 70 division.  I am now that guy!   How much additional stress do I want to put my body though?  This should not be so difficult.  I am having a great time training, competing and writing about my experience.  Responses I get from old Runners and new friends give me a reason to wake every day.  As you may have figured out by now I don’t have an answer here. But talking about it helps me to put things in perspective. So today is a healing day, a resting day and a thoughtful day.  The sun has appeared in New Jersey for the first time in a week.  I am planning to enjoy it.

 

 

Stats –

The only stat I can report today is that my I-MAD was 0!   That’s probably the first time I could report that in many weeks.  The variable is I did not take very definitive steps this morning when I woke up because of the pain in my foot.  So I will say 0 with a grain of salt.