No real bonk, as I ran the whole thing other than walking through 2 aid stations to make sure some of the sports drink actually went in my mouth instead of down my shirt...and aerobically I felt fine too (was never really breathing heavy). It was more just overall feeling of being tired and worn down. I tried going faster, but my body just wouldn't respond. The inner quads started threatening to cramp with about 2 to go...thankfully that never happened!

Pretty sure the fitness was there, just a noob mistake on my part. You know how it is, once you let yourself turn it into a head game...it's only going downhill. At mile 3 I was obsessing over making up the time I needed instead of focusing on turnover and keeping an even pace.


In the end Im pretty happy with my results though.
I probably need 4 or 5 days of recovery, then I'll be hitting the trails as much as I can in the next few weeks. I'm really looking forward to a nice 8-9 minute pace at Way Too Cool. : D

Ran a new PR 18:58 5k training run last night. So much for taking it easy.

Just wasnt feeling it today, and made a classic mistake of going too hard too early

Well fuck...weird pain below my ankle on the inside of my left foot.
Did some research and it seems like it might be some sort of tendonitis.
I couldnt even run a mile on it this morning.

Anyone know what to do with an inflamed Achilles? I don't want to stop running. I stretch, ice, wear more cushioned shoes, take a few more rest days, use Voltaren.

Use a golfball and roll your foot out. Helps a lot with tendonitis, especially if it's related to your fascia. If it's higher into your ankle, trace the alphabet and get a theraband to rehab your inversion/eversion and dorsi/plantar flexion.

Any weakness on that left side? Specifically standing on your toes or moving your foot inwards? How about pain into the great toe? If the pain isn't in your arch, but along ankle between your "ankle bone" and your achilles, that's a tendon sheath that you could have inflamed.

Hit the trails today at Crystal Cove State Park. BEAUITIFUL day! Not a cloud in the sky, mid 50's, nobody else on the trails. This area has some killer steep climbs, and I felt great on them. Can't wait for this 50k.

Hey...baby steps. Just leave the fucking rugby alone, would ya?

So I went to the sports therapist yesterday.
My whole ankle was pretty sore/tight/swollen when I went in.
The dude worked the shit out of my whole calf/shin area, basically everywhere but the injured area.
Holy shit that was fucking excruciating, I had some crazy knots and shit all over down there.
He then gave me some exercises to do involving super slow foot/ankle movement.
I walked out of there feeling WAY better, still a little tight but way less sore.
Today the swelling is almost all gone and it feels alot better.
Gonna take it easy today and keep icing/elevating and maybe try to get out this weekend and see how it feels.

I developed patellar tendonitis after a race in September, so here's my two cents on these types of injuries.

Rest, ice, etc are good for treating the symptoms but do nothing to address the root cause(s). I'm fortunate to have an old family friend who's a chiropractor and works with a lot of local triathletes. I was skeptical about going to a chiropractor, even an old friend like him, but it's made all the difference in the world. He's less about cracking joints and more about diagnosing musculoskeletal imbalances and prescribing routines to correct them. In my case my knee pain was actually coming from weak hips and glutes. Now I do specific stretches, strengthening exercises and targeted fascia stripping and I'm doing much better.

Any links to those stretches/exercises???

I haven't run in 6 weeks now (body is back to square one now) and have only ridden my bike trainer for cardio since fucking my knee in early January. It's still sore, so I might not go back to running at all, but any new stretches are welcome.

I'll be back on the road on my bike in another couple of weeks (assuming no new blizzards), but I'd LOVE to run again just so I can try a tri.

Whole week of no running.
Losing my mind and im driving my wife crazy.
I know I havent lost any fitness in just a week but im still going nuts.
Might need another week off.
I was reading a post by anton about injuries and he said the easiest injury to deal with was his broken leg because he knew there was no option for running when you have a cast on, but when you have a nagging injury you feel like you should still be out there.

I think the underlying causes of patellar tendonitis differ from person to person, so the stretches tailored to my problems wouldn't necessarily help you at all. With that said, my knee problems have been corrected by:

- strengthening hips and glutes by doing deep squats with a band between my knees, pushing out against the band while under load

- stretching uppermost part of my quads

- fascia stripping along the outside of my upper quad and inside of the lower quad (near the affected knee)

- foam rolling both legs

- general core strengthening