This week I was back to feeling fit and healthy again. Makes such a difference! I had a good hard week. In the space of 4 days (Thursday to Sunday) I ran 16kms, 0kms, 8kms and 28kms. That's 52kms in 4 days which included my new farthest distance.
The 28kms wasn't too bad apart from a foot issue. I'll admit I was tired and wanting to stop by the end but I could have gone longer. Not sure how much longer but definitely there was a little more in the tank. Which feels good when I consider that in the actual marathon, I won't have run many kms at all in the preceding two or three week so my legs will be as fresh as daisies - hardcore running daisies that is!!
The sore foot was interesting. I had been feeling sore in my left foot on the outside near my little toe while running 16kms along Beach Rd on Thursday evening. I'd been a bit concerned it might recur on Sundays run and sure enough, by about the 11km mark it really started becoming uncomfortable. I tried to walk it off for about 100metres but that didn't work. I was starting to think that my long run was going to be cut very short. In fact I was already having horrible thoughts of how long this "injury" was going to keep me out for and when I would be able to see the podiatrist during the week. I pretty well had the whole marathon called off in my head as I envisioned the worst case scenario/s. Then I stopped and readjusted my shoelaces. I eased up on the tension in the shoelaces mostly down the end and in the middle, laced them up again reasonably snug at the top and tried running again. And it was good! The foot felt fine! I waited for it to reoccur at some point and by around the 14km mark (half way!), it was still pain-free and I decided that I had really solved it - my foot must have been swelling up a little as I ran and my shoes were too tight and therefore causing some "squishing" of the foot. Easing the shoelaces made a little more room for my foot and all was good! I felt very relieved.
I ended the run by stopping in at the local bottle shop to buy 5kg of ice so I could have an ice bath. I didn't want any trouble from my run and if they say that an ice bath will help me recover then sure, lock it in! It wasn't much fun. One thing I noticed is that the initial shock of feeling cold once I lowered myself into the water went away after about a minute. It's like my thighs and calves and so on were able to somehow compensate or deal with it. The pain of the cold on my feet however remained for the whole 15mins or so that I was in the water. But hey, all worth it in the end if it helps me achieve my goal.
Only other thing I'll mention is how I've been noticing how much sleep I find myself needing. A nap followed my run on Sunday arvo. I knew there was no escaping the need for a snooze so surrendered to it and woke up about 1hr 20mins later. Felt a tad better for it too. I figure it makes sense to get horizontal and allow the body to do some healing while I've checked out of the world for a while. It's a pity however that my body does tend to want to fall asleep more often during the day! On trains, trams, while watching films (the Melbourne International Film Festival was regularly interrupted by short periods of battling to stay awake and failing!) and I've struggled on occasion in the afternoon after a big lunch at work. I seem to be pretty busy these days with various bit and pieces of my life so I guess that's wearing me out as well but the running is definitely requiring more sleep for all the repair work I'm requiring. I just need to make sure it gets it - not always as easy as it should be!
Week 11 distance covered: 67 km
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