Illness, injury and #stupidfeet

Illness

I always suffer from a lack of training mojo after an event. After London it was a full 14 days until I trained again as a general malaise had descended. In fact in the month following London I trained a total of 4 times.

So I planned some downtime post Mallorca (http://smoker2triathlete.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/my-first-half-ironman.html) to combat this. I planned on not training for the three days following Mallorca however my body had other ideas. The head-cold I picked up from the Mrs which didn't appear until after the race decided to take advantage of my weary body. It developed into laryngitis and following a trip to the doctors I was prescribed antibiotics. Cue forced rest.

Since I started this quest I have never been that good at being forced to rest through illness. I constantly feel like I am losing out on valuable training time and get frustrated at not being able to train.

The laryngitis is starting to get better with the aid of medication but the head-cold hasn't improved much. I still feel tight in the chest and the two weeks off training have done me no favours in my Outlaw preparations.

Injury

Now for the slightly better news, I went to the physio to see how serious my heel pain was. It transpires that it is not a huge disaster. It wasn't as bad as I feared. I feared the dreaded Plantar Fasciitis that is the bane of so many runners. Had it been PF then my quest to complete the Outlaw would be over for this year.

Thankfully (well I say thankfully as I have no choice but to embrace this hiccup) it is only achilles tendinitis. Achilles tendinitis struck me down last year for from February until May and stopped me running for nearly four months. This time the achilles tendinitis is not affecting the whole of the tendon like last time, it is only affecting the part of the tendon which joins to the bone. I hope that through careful management involving stretching and if needed more trips to the physio I can make the start line at the Outlaw.

I've made a decision regarding the Outlaw. If I don't think I can complete it I will not start the race. The swimming and bike still do not phase me. There is no point starting if I don't think my body is able to finish. The only thing that will stop me completing is this injury and I can guarantee each and every one of you that I will do my damnedest to make the start line.

The following quote from Ironman co-founder John Collins sums up my thoughts regarding the race and this is why I will only start if I know I can finish.

#stupidfeet

I mentioned to my physio that I had been through 8 pairs of trainers since January (one of which I have destroyed) trying to find a pair which did not cause blisters and that my Mrs thought a podiatrist could be the solution. He thought this was a good idea and reccomended I go to the one at Accelerate in Sheffield. I had to go to Accelerate anyway to return my destroyed trainers so it was not an out of the way journey. I booked my appointment for Thursday evening. The podiatrist from Holywell Healthcare inspected my feet and watched me run in numerous pairs of trainers to try to ascertain what the problem was. The appointment with the podiatrist lasted over an hour and involved me trying on about 10 pairs of trainers in Accelerate.

In summary I have an extremely mobile first metatarsal and when I run it is this mobility which causes the arch of my foot to rub against the side of my trainers which in turn causes friction which causes the blisters. The podiatrist doubts whether orthotics could solve this problem and suggested I first try a new pair of trainers. I found a pair of trainer in Accelerate which appear to not rub that much. If theese trainers do not work then the podiatrist suggests I try orthotics as a last resort.

So now I am onto my ninth pair of trainers for 2013 and now own some New Balance 1080v3 trainers.

If these do not produce blisters I will be buying several pairs, if they do well I will have to buy orthotics and then I can run in whichever trainers I feel like running in which would be Skechers Go Run as they are so light and cushioned. 

The podiatrist signed off from my appointment by stating and I quote "You have unusual feet" so there you go I have been saying on Twitter that I have #stupidfeet and been getting mocked for it but I do just have #stupidfeet.

Fingers crossed my new trainers don't cause blisters. I have been for three runs in them and have so far only felt a very small rubbing. I am building up slowly and so far am up to 5km with no blisters. If they rub I will then try Compeed and KT tape with a view to having a blister free existence.

General update

Due to the illness I have done very little training. In fact I have only just reassembled my bike. I went for a 27 mile bike ride on Saturday, 55 miles was on the training plan but I cut this short as I have just fitted a new saddle to my bike.  The new saddle is an ISM Adamo Prologue and I've bought it as I have been feeling a lot of pain during long rides and ISM claim their saddles counter this by taking pressure off the perineum.

During Mallorca I realised that I do not work hard enough on the bike after I lost 1700 places on the bike leg. During my training bike ride I tried to work harder and posted my second best average speed of 17.1mph. Given this was combined with my new saddle I was chuffed to bits. I bricked this with a 20 minute negative split run and was chuffed as this was in my new trainers, the run was blister free as well.

I'm hoping that this week I can go back to training in line with my plan as there is only 6 weeks until the Outlaw. Jeez how quick do these triathlons come round? It seems only two seconds ago since I booked the Outlaw last September.

If you're new to this blog, I am not doing this just for personal achievement I am also raising money for charity. My chosen charity for this year is HHHO. If you would like to sponsor me you can via my Justgiving page at the following address www.justgiving.com/triathlon4harry  

Thanks for reading,

Michael

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