One Step Back

After running Pick Your Poison on a slightly injured left calf, I decided to give it a rest last week. Even walking on it on Sunday and Monday was a pick painful, so I didn't run on it until Friday and then only for 7 or 8 km. I was afraid that without a break, that injury would linger until Mohican and haunt me for the entire race.

Taking a week off 6 or 7 weeks before a 100 miler is mentally difficult. I knew I was doing the right thing, but I know that my mileage hasn't been as high as it should have been. On the other hand, the last two races have been pretty hard and I've stretched them out to over 7 hours so I do have decent time-on-my-feet.

I had planned to run on Saturday and Sunday, but I had to be a bit careful, this being Mother's day weekend and all. A bunch of people were going to Sulphur Springs for a few loops on Saturday morning, but the idea was not well received and a scrapped that plan. Just as I was about ready to go out on Saturday, I got a call from my 17 year old daughter that the car she had been riding in coming back from London had been in an accident on the 403 somewhere near Hamilton. She was OK but shaken. My wife and I jumped in the car and picked her up there. Other than biting her tongue and a stiff neck, she's fine but it was a close call. Highway accidents scare the shit out of me. So, no running on Saturday.

I did go out on Sunday for a short 20 km run on the bike path. A problem I've been having lately is that I don't have road shoes that I like. I have a pair of Brooks Green Silence, but they are a bit oversized and I ran with them all winter wearing thick wool socks and now my feet slide all over the place in them and I get hot spots after 10k or so. I ran with them on Sunday and nearly got blisters. Unacceptable. I also have some Adidas Adizero model but they hurt the outside of my foot after an hour or so. I've been hacking at the insole but it's still a work in progress.

The shoe issue is a problem because I've signed up for the Toronto Marathon this Sunday and I don't want to wreck my feet so yesterday I went to the Nike store and bought a pair of Nike Lunarglide+2. I've trained in the Lunarglides last Winter and I ran the Sedona marathon in them so I'm pretty sure I'll be OK. I decided to run Toronto because there's a weird 4 week hole in the OUSER race schedule and it's always nice to have support for a long run. I plan on running pretty slow and finish in around 4 hours. 

Finally, I found someone to pace at Sulphur Springs so I'll be running the last 3 loops (60km) with Russell. That's perfect. This will be my last long run before Mohican and then I'll start tapering over the following 3 weeks.

That's it for now.