Having sought advice on my painful foot (see previous post) ... and following that advice ... I can now report that ibuprofen, rest, ice and the use of 'ball of foot cushions' from Scholl are beginning to reduce the inflammation and pain. Unfortunately the cushions aren't available on the Scholl website but I bought mine at Boots.
Very good they are too. I'm now confident again about this year's major races.
The results are now available from last Sunday's Fountain's 10k. They show that my actual time was 41:53 which represents an age graded time of 37:29. Both of those times are my best since the Horsforth 10k on 27 September 2008. This means that last weekend's race was my M45 personal best.
Further details of all my races are available on this page.
All the best to William Sichel and Heather Foundling Hawker for the 6 day race in which they are currently competing. Full details are available on William's website. Including live coverage of the whole event via webcam ... wonderful.
Showing posts with label Fountains 10k. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fountains 10k. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Monday, 2 May 2011
ouch ...
This is what happened yesterday:
Woke early, had breakfast, and left home at 7.30 precisely to run the 22.1 miles to Grantley for the morning's 10k race.
I took with me a hand-drawn map of the route because many of the roads I planned to run along were unfamiliar to me and, of course, I didn't want to get lost. On this map I had noted the distance at various places and my expected time of arrival at those places.
The first timing point was Pool and by that stage I was two minutes ahead of my schedule. But I was OK with that, at this early stage it would be easy to slow down fractionally. I did and from that point on I was always two to three minutes ahead of my target pace of 8:30 per mile.
Between Killinghall and Ripley though something happened ... I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left foot (fourth metatarsal head to be precise). I limped for two or three strides and then continued running but all the while I was aware that something wasn't quite right. I can't say it was painful though.
Arrived in Grantley almost half an hour before the race was due to start so I found Mick Jeffrey in the car park (he had agreed to give me a lift back to Otley) who later arranged for me to get a lift home with David Fox. The 22.1 mile undulating run from Otley to Grantley had taken 3h 33:30 at an average pace of about 8:18 per mile. Pleased with that.
The Fountains 10k itself also went well. I enjoyed the sunny conditions (but not the strong wind) and ran well within myself to finish in about 42 minutes which is the fastest I have managed a 10k since September 2008. The hills were quite hard into the headwind though but I did manage to run the final mile quite a bit faster than the previous miles which I'm pleased about.
At the finish line I received a spot prize of a bottle of Viking Bitter from Rudgate Brewery. The bloke handed it over with the words "here, you look as if you deserve this". Little did he know.
Thanks to Mick and David for arranging my transport home. During the race my foot felt fine and any potential problem had left my mind entirely but when I arrived home and rested for a while I found it very difficult to walk and putting any weight on my left foot seemed very painful indeed. I took some ibuprofen and iced my foot and wondered what to do as I knew it could be a few days before I could see a doctor because of the weekend and the Bank Holiday.
After a few hours with my foot in the air I realised that the minor injuries department at my local hospital would be open and so off I limped and after an examination and an X-ray it was confirmed, much to my relief, that there was no damage to any of my metatarsals. It looked very likely that it is just a bad case of metatarsalgia and that R.I.C.E would be the best course of action. Of course, without a sports injury specialist being available it was impossible to obtain a 100% accurate diagnosis.
As I write this, about 28 hours after the initial injury, the pain has almost subsided but I'm still icing and taking ibuprofen regularly. I now feel a lot more positive about the next week or so. I was going to run 24 miles this morning but before going to bed last night I realised that would be a foolish thing to do and so I've decided that my next run will be the first Harrogate League race on Thursday evening. But I will keep monitoring the situation and will not jeopardise my ultra racing plans.
Woke early, had breakfast, and left home at 7.30 precisely to run the 22.1 miles to Grantley for the morning's 10k race.
I took with me a hand-drawn map of the route because many of the roads I planned to run along were unfamiliar to me and, of course, I didn't want to get lost. On this map I had noted the distance at various places and my expected time of arrival at those places.
The first timing point was Pool and by that stage I was two minutes ahead of my schedule. But I was OK with that, at this early stage it would be easy to slow down fractionally. I did and from that point on I was always two to three minutes ahead of my target pace of 8:30 per mile.
Between Killinghall and Ripley though something happened ... I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left foot (fourth metatarsal head to be precise). I limped for two or three strides and then continued running but all the while I was aware that something wasn't quite right. I can't say it was painful though.
Arrived in Grantley almost half an hour before the race was due to start so I found Mick Jeffrey in the car park (he had agreed to give me a lift back to Otley) who later arranged for me to get a lift home with David Fox. The 22.1 mile undulating run from Otley to Grantley had taken 3h 33:30 at an average pace of about 8:18 per mile. Pleased with that.
The Fountains 10k itself also went well. I enjoyed the sunny conditions (but not the strong wind) and ran well within myself to finish in about 42 minutes which is the fastest I have managed a 10k since September 2008. The hills were quite hard into the headwind though but I did manage to run the final mile quite a bit faster than the previous miles which I'm pleased about.
At the finish line I received a spot prize of a bottle of Viking Bitter from Rudgate Brewery. The bloke handed it over with the words "here, you look as if you deserve this". Little did he know.
Thanks to Mick and David for arranging my transport home. During the race my foot felt fine and any potential problem had left my mind entirely but when I arrived home and rested for a while I found it very difficult to walk and putting any weight on my left foot seemed very painful indeed. I took some ibuprofen and iced my foot and wondered what to do as I knew it could be a few days before I could see a doctor because of the weekend and the Bank Holiday.
After a few hours with my foot in the air I realised that the minor injuries department at my local hospital would be open and so off I limped and after an examination and an X-ray it was confirmed, much to my relief, that there was no damage to any of my metatarsals. It looked very likely that it is just a bad case of metatarsalgia and that R.I.C.E would be the best course of action. Of course, without a sports injury specialist being available it was impossible to obtain a 100% accurate diagnosis.
As I write this, about 28 hours after the initial injury, the pain has almost subsided but I'm still icing and taking ibuprofen regularly. I now feel a lot more positive about the next week or so. I was going to run 24 miles this morning but before going to bed last night I realised that would be a foolish thing to do and so I've decided that my next run will be the first Harrogate League race on Thursday evening. But I will keep monitoring the situation and will not jeopardise my ultra racing plans.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
plans, plans and more plans
OK so I like plans. Plans are good ... they make things easier.
PLAN 1 - running to Grantley on Sunday morning to take part in the annual Fountains 10k. That way I get to do a long run and a race at, more or less, the same time. My route to Grantley - via Pool, North Rigton, Killinghall, Ripley and Sawley - is about 22 miles. And then another long run on Monday (24 miles)
PLAN 2 - a very long run on Monday 9 May. From York I plan to run back to Otley along the Ebor Way long distance footpath. This is a distance of 37.75 miles and I'm looking forward to a good day out. When I last did this run it rained so much during the middle third of the route that I had to buy another map in Wetherby to replace the one which had become too soggy to use. Looking back through my old training diaries to find when that was I was surprised that I had to go all the way back to July 2004 - almost two years before my first ultra race. I guess even then I must have been seriously considering 'moving up' ... but that was even before my one and only marathon.
PLANS 3 & 4 - putting together pacing and feeding/drinking plans for my first ultra of the year. The ULTRArace 100 on Friday 24 June. All this information will have to be given to my crew when finalised so that between us we can iron out anything that may be impractical or that I've forgotten or that's just plain wrong - yes that does happen sometimes so it's always worthwhile having someone else check things over.
Then it's on to Llandudno in September for this year's big race ... and more plans. It gives me something to do between training sessions !!!!
PLAN 1 - running to Grantley on Sunday morning to take part in the annual Fountains 10k. That way I get to do a long run and a race at, more or less, the same time. My route to Grantley - via Pool, North Rigton, Killinghall, Ripley and Sawley - is about 22 miles. And then another long run on Monday (24 miles)
PLAN 2 - a very long run on Monday 9 May. From York I plan to run back to Otley along the Ebor Way long distance footpath. This is a distance of 37.75 miles and I'm looking forward to a good day out. When I last did this run it rained so much during the middle third of the route that I had to buy another map in Wetherby to replace the one which had become too soggy to use. Looking back through my old training diaries to find when that was I was surprised that I had to go all the way back to July 2004 - almost two years before my first ultra race. I guess even then I must have been seriously considering 'moving up' ... but that was even before my one and only marathon.
PLANS 3 & 4 - putting together pacing and feeding/drinking plans for my first ultra of the year. The ULTRArace 100 on Friday 24 June. All this information will have to be given to my crew when finalised so that between us we can iron out anything that may be impractical or that I've forgotten or that's just plain wrong - yes that does happen sometimes so it's always worthwhile having someone else check things over.
Then it's on to Llandudno in September for this year's big race ... and more plans. It gives me something to do between training sessions !!!!
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