So I signed up for my first 24 Hour foot race and detailed my high level training plan and my nutrition plan.

So now I will detail my training from Week 8

This will definitely be my shortest training week recap yet.. as I was unable to do any running, race walking or stair climbing (although I am doing a serious climb in about 3 hours) because of a slight tear in my right foot’s plantar fascia from last Sunday’s run. I was able to hit the gym twice (I would of gone in on Tuesday but was just mentally exhausted from the injury on Sunday) and they were good workouts but I obviously have to run and race walk in preparation for this 24 hour race.

There are a few things that I learned or just wanted to discuss from last week:

• I was lucky enough to get into see my podiatrist (and later that day my chiropractor who gently worked on the tear) and he said I tore a few fibers (I can feel the little knot) but that he didn’t think it would be too much of an issue and not very long lived. He told me to let pain be my guide (as to it’s being healed) and to gently stretch it, roll my foot on a frozen water bottle and use this cream he was going to have made up at the pharmacy. This cream is really something. I couldn’t get it at a Walgreens or other regular pharmacy. It was custom made at a “compounding” pharmacy and couriered over to my house (luckily insurance covered it). It has 5 different anti-inflammatories and pain medications in it and it does seem to be helping. I will be using it until I am 100%.
• My chiropractor thinks the most likely explanation is that I trained calves (for the first time) the day before my run on Friday (where I later felt my plantar feel “not right”) and the resulting tightness in my calves may have put on an undo stretch on my plantar. What I didn’t do (and what he wants me to do and definitely makes sense) is thoroughly stretch my calves after I do calf work in the gym so as to significantly lessen the tightening that can result from it. I have always stretched my calves after running, but for some reason didn’t think to (or thought I didn’t have time) stretch them after the calf work. I won’t be doing any calf work until I am 100% again (I can’t really lever up my right foot at the moment.. so it is kind of a moot point) but when I do I will definitely stretch afterwards.
• I was given the green light (by my podiatrist) to do the 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb today! He said because there is no calf decelaration (like there is in running) because we will only be climbing upwards (and taking the elevator down) that I shouldn’t hurt my foot. It may hurt a bit, but won’t further hurt it. So I am going to be attempting to climb 110 floors with my team of 6 in about 3 hours!! I am really excited and definitely a bit nervous. This is one serious climb and I am not 100% but I will do everything I can to complete it because it is for such a wonderful cause. Of course I will be writing about this event soon.
• One thing I talked to my podiatrist about doing to hopefully make the climb a little bit less painful is wear my old (haven’t worn them in years) soft orthotics that he had made me. Orthotics are kind of the opposite of barefooting (and minimalist running in general) and I would never consider going back to them on a regular basis for running (because I learned that I just can’t do that and stay healthy) but to help with an injury it may make sense. By fitting my feet perfectly and adding the support to not allow my arch to drop they do seem to make it more comfortable to get around at the moment. I was worried that they wouldn’t fit in my new minimalist shoes (and I wasn’t about to climb in my 4 year old trainers that the orthotics were built for) but they do fit reasonably well. I definitely had to loosen the laces alot but I think they will be ok. It does make moving more comfortable at the moment, so hopefully it helps.
• I can’t find the article now unfortunately, but there was a great article on Running Times where many runners detailed the most important things that they had learned from their coaches over the years and I was really struck (and really agree with) champion marathoner Ryan Hall when he wrote (paraphrasing) “My coach taught me that when working to stick to a plan.. the athlete shouldn’t stick to it unwaveringly simply to stay on the plan. The plan should accomodate the athlete, not the athlete make every effort (even if seemingly negative) to accomodate the plan” What this meant to me was that we should have plans and try to stick to them, but we should more importantly listen to our bodies and our training and make adjustments when necessary. This is what I have been doing with my plan and this is what I will probably do in the weeks ahead if necessary. One area where I will be adjusting is how I incorporate my race walking… I just am not finding it working (because of time and/or effort involved) to race walk right after my workout at the gym, so I will be incorporating it into my runs. I will be run/racewalking on most of my runs just like I plan on doing it at the race itself. I think this will help accomplish two things. One I will be able to have the time to get the race walking in, and two I will be replicating my race strategy on a regular basis which should make me that much more used to it and stronger at it come race day. I will be training the way I expect to race and that is generally a good thing (like making sure to do hills if your race is hilly). I will be getting in slightly less miles of running on those runs perhaps (maybe not) but will most likely be getting in greater overall volume because I will be able to go farther (because of the active recovery of the race walking). Plus just as important, I will be getting a lot of race walking in during the week. We will see how it goes.. and how soon it will be before I can do either.
• When looking for the article with Ryan Hall’s quote, I did stumble upon a pretty good article that details a few recent studies showing the benefits of serious weight training (and plyometrics) for runners. Since this is an approach that I am taking, I thought I would share this article that points to heavier weights in the gym helping runners. It is interesting.
• Looking at the calendar at the top of this post.. I still have a bit over 16 weeks until race day. 16 weeks is generally the length of a long and serious training program for a race, so if I get over this injury relatively quickly (which is the hope) than I definitely still have time to train. Not thinking any seriously negative thoughts based off of how far out I am.

So now I will detail my training from Week 8.

So onto last week:

Thursday the 5th: Glutes – I tried forward lunges without walking but it didn’t really work with the plantar issues (too much levering needed), so I did 3 sets of side lunges with a fixed barbell going my heaviest yet with 70X20, 80X15 and 80X15 (I will say that as the weight goes higher this exercise becomes a serious core workout because of holding the weight in a Zercher position as opposed to just working the glutes.. I like that) and then 130 for 2 sets on the Glute Press

5 sets for Abs/Obliques

18 sets for Delts

10 sets for Biceps

2 sets for Rotators

Saturday the 7th: 6 sets of Double Overhand Conventional Deadlifts ending with my heaviest yet at 335X3

22 sets for Lats (I’m trying to get better at Pullups… never been good at them no matter how strong my upper back has gotten.. but I thought just for the heck of it I would start to incorporate them into my warmup for Lats until I can do sets of 12 – 15 easily… will be a while before that is a reality)

13 sets for Triceps

That is about it for last week’s training, but keep an eye out for my 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb Report this week!

Best of luck in your training,

Chris