Update time

I was intending to get a few posts out earlier but I have been kind of in limbo. I have been attempting to increase my long runs on trails and it has been a struggle. I just have not felt right and the mile times have been slow.

A few weeks back I got an invite from Wayne to join him for the Chester Woods 50k or whatever, I went down thinking I would do the whatever distance and get in 2 loops for 20 miles. I bailed after the 1st long loop at 13 miles. My leg wasn't right,same issue that I have had but a little different. The calf tightens right above the achilles and then it's just a question where the secondary pain will come from. This time it was the hamstring and the foot. Basically the leg felt like it was torqued.

In some recent runs in Lebanon I tried to push the pace and caused the flair up and I noticed that the lift on my left leg is about half that of the right. I figured this out standing on the old bridge and trying to stretch after it had tightened up. I did one legged lifts and noticed that my heel was hardly coming off the ground with my left leg. When I resumed running I noticed that my left leg wasn't helping and my speed had slowed. It all kind of makes sense.

So what next, I will continue to get in runs when things seem ok and will work a little more diligently with stretching, strengthening, foam rolling and the stick. The difference will be a broader focus on all of the leg muscles. I will also add back in the plank walking and barefoot runs to improve the proprioception and strength.

And of course I am going to experiment with shoes to see if I can figure out anything that helps. So that means a few runs in my Inov-8's which have the higher heel drop just to get additional input. I haven't really noticed any connection to the shoes. I have noticed that my Trail Bionics are lightweight and on more rugged trail cause me to work more and to step more carefully. They are the shoes I wore at Chester Woods but again I don't think it matters but it is something I can play with so I will.

With regard to upcoming races, I have decided to skip Porcupine and just do the Surf the Murph 50k.

Fall Race Plans

So I am looking at a couple of fall race events and am now starting to commit to a few of them, it is critical that I get totally serious with regard to my training and staying on plan to avoid that normal --

:My next race is the Porcupine Mountains Trail Marathon in Silver City, Michigan on October 5th. It is an inaugural event and should accomplish two things, it will be my first trail marathon or greater event in a couple of years and it will allow me to click off Michigan as my 13th state. For the last 2 weekends I have gone down to Murphy and gotten in some longer runs. Week 1 was 2 hours and week 2 was 3 hours They were slow miles so I have a lot of work to do to get in shape to get through the Michigan event. I don't know anything about the course other than they have a 7 hr time limit. The way I am looking at it is that I have done Chippewa, Afton and other events within that time window but I have to train.

I am still working through the injuries but I think I am making progress, I have eliminated most of the foot pain but am still figuring out the calf. It often feels torqued but through self massage and foam rolling I seem to be getting through it. The real test will come in the next few weeks as I continue to ramp the mileage.

Beyond this marathon, I am debating between Surf the Murph 50k and 50M, I should do the 50k but the 50 miler has appeal for a couple of reasons. First I haven't done a 50 miler in 2 years so it would be a welcome back to ultras, of course I haven't done a 50k either but that's where the other thing comes to mind. Next May, they have added a 100 mile event at Murphy, it's called the Savage 100 and it might be my first 100. The advantage is I know the course (6 loops on the Surf the Murph course), it's on May 17th so the temps should be ok, it has a reasonably generous time limit (34 hours), it starts at 3 am which should mean a slower first loop which could setup the day.  Anyway, it's something to think about.

Shoe Update

I was looking through my running spreadsheet the other day and I noticed a few interesting things.

I am now running in my 94th pair of shoes and I have 9 pairs in my rotation (2 pairs of road shoes, 4 pairs of trail shoes, 3 pairs of minimalist shoes) and 3 pairs out of service but not completely abandoned. Without a doubt this is the highest number of shoes I have ever had active. The shoes shown here are the latest addition to my collection (although I bought them in blue versus orange), a pair of Skechers Go Bionic Trail shoes and after a few runs I may have found the perfect shoe for me. I love that I can keep the insole in and have 4 mil drop shoes or remove it and have 0 drop. I have run in them on both roads and trails, no issues running in them on the road and they worked great on the trails with good protection and traction. Of course I have thought that before and changed my mind after 50 or 100 or 150 miles. I will do a complete review on them in a future post. Here are a couple of recent reviews: RunBlogger and Coach Caleb.

Go Run Ride 2

Turns out I may really become a convert to Skechers as I was emailed today that I won their contest and will be receiving a pair of Go Run Ride 2's, Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking before I heard this that I should try their road shoes and now I can. For those not familiar with Skechers, I think they are listening to runners and working to create shoes that work for us so you should check them out as they have done a great job in hitting the low to zero heel drop shoe market space. And here is a review on these shoes: Running Swede.

Why do I have so many shoes active right now? Well there is a good reason, ok, that may be a stretch but here is my rationale. I went minimalist a couple years ago to try and resolve some injuries which led me to buy minimalist shoes. I consider those to be active but hadn't run in them for over 6 months until the past couple weeks as I got to thinking that not running in them might have been contributing to some of my injury issues more on that in a future post.

And since, I have been dealing with injuries I have been running more on roads as the trail surfaces have been aggravating my problems. So I added the road shoes in addition to my trail shoes. Plus I have to admit that I have bought a few pairs of trail shoes to try and compensate the injuries.

Here is the high level summary of my current shoes:

Minimalist:
New Balance MT10 ($80): 225 miles, some protection, 4 mil drop
Merrell Trail Gloves ($58): 54 miles, not much protection, 0 mil drop
Vibram Five Fingers ($85) - TrekSports: 88 miles, not much protection, 0 mil drop

Road shoes:
Altra Provision ($77): 130 miles, cushioned, run short, 0 mil drop
Brooks Cadence ($78): 109 miles, cushioned, nice fit, 5 mil drop

Trail shoes:
Altra Lone Peak ($77): 55 miles, very good protection, 0 mil drop
Brooks PureGrit ($70): 169 miles, good protection, poor traction, 5 mil drop
Saucony Xodus 3.0  ($44): 9 miles, good protection, 4 mil drop
Skechers Go Bionic Trails ($64): 19 miles, really nice fit, good protection, 4 mil drop

Out of service for the time being:
Inov-8 330 ($51): 52 miles, hard, extreme protection, 9 mil drop
Inov-8 295 ($78): 157 miles, like them, good protection, 9 mil drop
New Balance MT110 ($60): 140 miles, ok protection, 4 mil drop

If you want to see the history for all of my shoes, see the subpage called "shoes".

Plans for July, another option?

I was thinking about taking time off for my calf/foot issue until I was completely pain free and how I wasn't going to sign up for a race until I was healthy. I thought about it a bit more and concluded, nope that ain't me at all. I love running too much to take time off. I know that I run long distances because it is hard for me and I love the challenge and dealing with injuries is part of the challenge. I need the pressure of a race to get my training in. With the pressure of training if I am in pain then sometimes I go in to get it checked out and worked on, granted I sometimes don't. Of course, the down side is if I sign-up I tend to run the event or make the attempt, it's why I ran Grandmas, so I am actively scouting for fall events. Surf the Murph 50k is going to be a given soon. Twin Cities I was going to sign up for but it's full and I would have to sign-up under a charity contribution so it would cost an extra $100 which I am starting to rationalize in my head.

I also am considering the Mill Race Marathon which is a first time event in my home town in late September. Sure would be fun to do. Of course there is the Tecumseh Trail Marathon in Indiana which has been the event I want to do which is in early December. The fun part is trying to find events and I have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

As of yesterday, I have resumed running as the foot is starting to come around. I think with a lot of self massage, some ice and patience I will get it pain free. If not, what's one more marathon in pain. I did have kind of a revelation with regard to my foot while I was on my run. I was thinking how using Kinesio tape has helped take the pressure off of the PTT and how the issue started after I tore my calf and then it hit me,why haven't I used the Kinesio tape on the calf? If the foot pain was caused by the calf then treating the foot probably won't solve the issue. So I have taped the calf and I will see if that helps out. I still remember all too well my Doctors comment (from 2 years back) about the ankle and calf injuries I went to see him for, he said the ankle will be good in another month or so but the calf may bother you for a lot longer. Dang if he wasn't right.