Training Hickup

Well, I had three weeks following my training plan to the letter, and I was starting to feel a little fitter.  This weekend was not meant to be too much training - 22k on Saturday and 10 on Sunday, so I headed down to Dartmoor to get some miles in with Joe. We mapped out a loop from his house up onto Cosden and then heading north to Sticklepath and then tracing a loop round west to circle Cosden and back home. Sunny skys and an easy pace - what could be better.

Our route

Joe on top of Cosden

Me on Cosden - feeling good

Unfortunately, the running gods were not with me and on the decent my foot rolled off a grass tussock, and I landed with it over to one side and the toes tucked under.  The crack didn't sound good and an X-ray confirmed that I had fractured my foot.  Specifically an avulsion fracture off the side of the calcaneus.

I maneuvered to a small stream to cool it in an attempt to prevent swelling while Joe and I decided what to do next.  The map showed that we were only a few km from a road, so after some tentative steps with my poles, I figured that I could make it down without assistance and Joe would run home to get a car to pick me up.  I stuck my buddy beacon on in viewranger (great safety feature - if you are not aware of it then it basically traces your movement on a map so that friends can see where you are / have been) and headed down.

Yum

I met up with Joe in Sticklepath having failed to buy a cream tea because Joe's emergency £10 was an old note that is no longer legal tender!  Then on to Exeter A&E to sit out the rest of the afternoon.

So what next? It's a real disappointment as the one positive about finishing up my job last month was that at least I had the opportunity to take my training for TDS seriously.  It's frustrating how all that can evaporate in a moment's lack of concentration.  That said, I'm trying to be sanguine about it: I don't think that running TDS is out of the question at this stage.  I have 12 weeks until the race and should be back running lightly in six, so that gives me an opportunity to get a three-week training block in before tapering. If I can work on some strength and fitness between now and then it is possibly worth starting TDS, even if I have to scale back my ambitions. The only thing that might change this is if there is any risk of the TDS impacting my long-term recovery - there will be more races, and my #1 priority has to be long-term recovery.

I have pulled out of my training race (Ham and Lyme 100k) which was in 5 weeks time - the race director kindly let me defer my entry until next year - many thanks.

So now to think about what training I can do over the next six weeks with my foot in a boot!  I'm hoping that after a couple of weeks I may be able to do some swimming, cycling and start on a mega program of squats!