I have been doing a little research on my injury and the causes.

This led me to investigate the different heel toes drops of my various running shoes. I was of the belief that they were all pretty much the same. I knew that my ASICS, Salomon and Brooks all had a 10mm heel to toe drop.

Today’s research confirmed this except for the new Sauconys, they have a 4mm drop. I’m pretty sure the guy in the shop said they had a 10mm drop, which is why I was happy to go for a 30km in them straight up. If I’d known they were 6mm different I would have started off with a few much shorter runs.

When I was in the shop looking for new trail shoes I first tried on a pair of Invo-8 shoes which felt very heel down and weird, the guy said they were a low drop, 0 or 4mm. I said I didn’t want to go through the hassle of changing drop at this stage, with a marathon coming up change is bad. He grabbed out the Peregrines because they were apparently a higher drop. They felt better but in hindsight probably because overall they have a thicker sole, and I had after all just been walking around in another low drop  shoe so they wouldn’t have felt so weird. But as it turns out they have a 4mm drop which is the same drop as the Invo-8 shoes.

So now I’m wondering if they have contributed to the injury. There is a fair gap between the 30km trail run in the Peregrines and the injury showing up. But I guess it could have aggravated things.

These are the longer runs leading up to the injury, there are a number of shorter runs including track sessions and road running in between them.

20 Aug – 30km in 4mm drop Sauconys

27 Aug – 21km in 10mm – Race

30 Aug – 13km in 10mm

31 Aug – Bicycle ride – Ouch

I assume that the bike shoes have a 0mm drop as (I assume) it’s not important once clipped in. In fact bike shoes without a sole at the heel would have a negative drop when walking due to the clip mechanism at the front.

With the 30km of trails to aggravate it, then with the higher km of marathon training to not let it heal, followed by walking a little bit in bike shoes and maybe even starting the ride on a hill, might have tipped it over the edge.

Currently it’s taped to relieve some of the stress on it and I have some ankle strengthening exercises to do, as well as icing, foam rolling and massage. No running for 48 hours after seeing the therapist. Then I’ll start with a slow flat 5km run to see how it feels.

26 days until Chicago marathon. Not panicking at all…

From the highs to the lows, with only 4 days in between. Sunday I ran a road half marathon and got my sub 2 hour goal.  Monday was rest day, Tuesday was a track session followed by a 13km slow run on Wednesday. No issues at all.

The weather forecast for Thursday was sunny and warmish so I decided to cross train and take the bike. I cycled the 2km to the station in the morning as this saves having to shower at work. I hopped on the bike that afternoon ready for the 17km ride home, I think I’d gone 200m when my left achilles tendon made itself known, and it wasn’t happy. I continued home on the bike, assuming it was just a bit stiff.

I didn’t really think anything of it. I gave it a bit of a stretch that night. Friday was a rest day. Saturday is parkrun day. I did a pre parkrun 2.5km slow lap and the tendon again made itself know. It wasn’t too bad, and quickly settled down to just being annoying. I finished parkrun and Saturday went on without any further issues.

Sunday morning was going to be a big run, about 32km with 800m of elevation gain was on loaded on the Garmin. I headed to Lysterfield for a 6am start. I found a friends car parked there with the interior light on, they were crazy and had started at 5:30am on a Sunday! I sent them a message to let them know and headed off. Everything was fine until about halfway up the first hill, then the tendon really made itself know. Enough that I had to alter my gait to get up the hill. I ran the flats and downhills, but all the up hurt, and it was getting worse. At 6km I decided to pull the pin and head back to the car. That still meant 4km more including a double hill. I walked up the hills!

I went to see a man about it on Tuesday.

It doesn’t appear to be a damaged achilles tendon. More likely an over use injury caused by my dodgy running style and the increased km. So with 32 days to go until Chicago I’m limited to 3 runs a week with a maximum distance of 10km. That’s assuming no pain when I run on the flat.

This one seemed like a good idea, it was going to be a month after Run Melbourne and it would be in a lower km week of my marathon training. It’s not a flat course, as it runs along Beach Rd which undulates a bit.

I got a good months training in between Run Melbourne and the Sandy point half. No illness or injuries, just quality sessions. The Sunday before Sandy Point I did a 30km long run as planned. I was a bit silly and joined a couple of running friends at 6am for an early run. It was silly because they were doing a double Wicked Wednesday loop. It’s called that because it has around 350m of elevation (climbing) over the 10km. Most of it in the first 5km, but there’s enough in the last 5km to keep you panting. I did the two laps with them then headed off for a 3^rd not so hilly 10km lap to get to 30km. I ended up climbing 866m over the 30km.

That was my longest run ever and my second most elevation gained.

My legs were so sore. What had I done? In theory it should have been an easy 30km mostly flat road run, instead I did a massively hilly trail run! But the company was worth it.

I headed to the recovery centre on Monday seeking some relief, I attended my Tuesday night track session as usual with lead like legs. As I was sort of tapering for the half marathon I moved Wednesday’s easy run to Thursday and got a massage, legs still sore, and rested on Friday and Saturday. There was also much foam rolling. They were still not 100% by the Saturday, but were feeling okay.

Race day!

Well the weather forecast wasn’t the best, showers, hail and wind. On a beach side road, what could go wrong?

It was WINDY! I kept my warm gear on until 1 minute before the start. Then threw it to my biggest supporter (hi Maggie) and jogged into the starting crowd as the gun went off. Thankfully it wasn’t raining. Yet.

I set off with the crowd, this is a much smaller run that the last event, something like 600 half marathon runners rather than 8000. My aim was to keep as close as possible to my goal pace. This was extra challenging with the strong buffeting headwind, especially on the hills. I kept checking my Garmin to try and keep to pace. It’s very easy in the first 5km to go too fast while you’re feeling good. I kept slowing just a little to keep on pace, then the wind would hit and it felt like you stopped mid stride.

I passed the 2:10 pacer in the first km, good, I can’t be behind them! At about 5km I could see I was gaining slowly on what appeared to be pacers balloon in the distance. About then it rained, with the added bonus headwind the water slammed into my front. Nice.

At about 8km the course turned left and the wind stopped, that was such a relief. It took another 2km to catch the 2 hour pacer. I tagged on with him and his posse just as we hit the turnaround point at 10.5km.

The pacer, we’ll call him Michael since that’s what someone going the other way yelled at him, was great. He kept encouraging us, chatting, telling jokes as we ran. He’s run a bit as it turned out, 15 Melbourne marathons I think he said at one point.

The course turned right shortly after that and the wind was still there, thankfully now a gusty tailwind. It was still raining at the same spot, a bit heavier and maybe with a bit of hail to keep it interesting.

As we passed 15km a few in the group started to surge past him. He called them back, telling all of us that surging at 15km is way too early. Unless you’ve trained for it you won’t be able to hold on for 6km until the finish. Some listened, some didn’t. My plan was always to hold a steady pace until near the finish.

We slowed a little on the hills and picked up the pace just a little on the downhills. Michael guaranteed us a sub 2 hour finish if we stayed with him to the end. He would be keeping a steady pace all the way, no surges, and no sprints.

At 19km Michael told those that were left that if you’ve got it, now is the time to go. Don’t go crazy, but pick up the pace a bit and hold on for 2km. So I did, I lifted my pace from the 5:40min/km we’d be averaging to about 5:15min/km. The pace wasn’t a conscious decision; it’s just what I figured I could do for the last 2km. I even managed a final surge for the last few hundred metres.

Time… 1:58.17. Yes! Done! Happy!

I got back to the car just as the rain and hail really hit.