I'm going to try a weekly update (or maybe 2x per week) instead of daily - it might help tie some things together more cleanly between workouts during a single week.
On Monday I did a short 4ish mile run - the first since the long 17 miler the other week that ended up aggrevating my right foot right around my 5th metatarsal. The point of this run was simply to see how my foot would react - it was feeling much better, about 95%. However I know from experience that the last 5% can take a real long time, so I thought I'd try a test run to start getting an idea of how much it might set me back or what effect it might have. Sometimes injuries and healing can be a step-back-two-steps-forward kinda deal. The foot ended up feeling perfectly fine while running - oddly enough I feel it more when walking and not at all during running - but that afternoon it started getting a little tender again. The other reason I picked this day to test it out is that I knew I was going to go to yoga in the evening, and that always helps out a bit.
On Tuesday I did the TrainerRoad Trojan workout. I wanted to do a more threshold type workout - last week was primarily intervals, so I thought something more steady and sustained would be a nice change of pace. This workout was that, being 6 x 10 minute sets with brief sprints during those sets. Unfortunately the sprints were so fast that by the time I got up to power, they were just about over - so that is why the readout shows I fell short of the target power, even though I intentionally kept @ power for 2-3 seconds after the sprint in an attempt to resolve that issue. Anyway, I liked that it was a solid amount of time @ threshold.
On Wednesday the foot was feeling good enough to give a shot to a six mile run with intervals - similar to the interval session from a couple weeks ago. Warm up two miles, 1/4 mile intervals at target of 1:38, 1/4 rest in between. This was done with a coworker during lunch at work, and since it was with someone else, it naturally ended up being too fast - as evidenced by the brief touch of 200 bpm for the heartrate, and the first three intervals reaching 190 bpm, and all but the last being faster than 1:30. It wasn't until the final interval that we hit the 1:38 (and that was partially uphill). Oops.
Wednesday evening saw another cycling workout. Continuing with the threshold theme (also since I did intervals during the run), I did the TrainerRoad 90 minute free workout - a completely free form workout. It consisted of 5 minutes of warmup spin @ 50% FTP, followed by 5 minutes of ratcheting up by 10% FTP every minute - making the last minute @ FTP. Then it was 5 minutes rest before 3 x 20 minute intervals @ FTP with 5 minutes rest in between.
On Thursday, I only had time for a one hour cycling session. I wanted to continue with the threshold theme, so I found a workout called Wallace which fit the bill - 2 x 20 minute FTP intervals with a couple brief 30s 'breaks' at ~95% FTP. Even though the HR was lower for the same power as the previous night, my legs felt more worn and fatigued.
On Friday I took a rest day - I wanted to do a threshold run on Saturday, and with Thursday's workout highlighting fatigue, I decided it was a good day to take a break. Also, I had been hitting the bike hard the past two weeks, and just needed a mental break from it.
On Saturday morning, the foot was feeling really good again (though not quite 100% still), so I went ahead with a threshold/marathon pace run. In my mind I knew I should limit it to about 11 on account of the foot, but my motivation wanted to do more like 13. I ended up settling on a route that was about 11.7 miles, mostly because I just wanted something different for that distance as opposed to my typical 11 mile route around the Sudbury Reservoir. It was an interesting run with multiple stages - the first few miles felt really strong, and I was really happy with how things were proceeding, wondering whether to thank relative running rest over the past couple weeks (on account of the foot) or the FTP workouts on the bike. After the 4-5 mile mark, I started to feel fatigue a bit, so I tried to remain more focused than usual during these times on form - making sure I wasn't over-striding, keeping cadence up, and trying to keep loose. Around the 6 mile mark, I came to a crossroads, so to speak - slow down to try and keep the HR under control (as it was starting to creep up, or speed up and turn the 2nd half into something like a progression run. I opted for the latter, because the foot was starting to be a slight bother, and I knew that the longer I was out, the worse it would get. By the time I hit the 9 mile mark, the foot was a constant annoyance and I kinda wished I had opted for the other loop that was closer to 11 miles as opposed to this one that was closer to 12. I actually considered stopping to walk, but knew that this particular injury hasn't been historically helped by walking - so I pushed on to get home as fast as possible and get in the ice bath.
Fortunately, I had already drawn the cold water bath before I left, in the interest of minimizing time. I was glad I did - once I got home, I quickly had my recovery drink of chocolate milk and protein powder and got in the tub. Typically after a few minutes in the tub, any sort of aches or whatever I've had during the run go away - but I could still feel tenderness in my foot, so I knew that wasn't a good sign. I ended up popping 4 advil to get a head start on anti-inflammatories, as it was evident that just cold water alone wasn't going to be enough.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, I stayed on advil and have been aggressive with ice water immersion of the foot, following by massaging and rewarming to get fresh blood flow. My hope is that this will be like a lot of other overuse injuries I've had - very slow to heal and stubborn to completely heal, then it gets worse, and then it gets better. However, that pattern could certainly be an effect of being more aggressive about healing the 2nd time around.
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