Cross country race, and then disaster!

It has been 9 days since my last post, but for some reason I think I will be forgiven by my one loyal fan...ok maybe I don't have one yet!


Last Thursday evening I did a short talk on fund-raising and training for a marathon at the Kensington Roof Gardens. I was asked as most of Virgin's runners are new to fund-raising and training so I put together some pointers on what I thought the basics and most valuable points were. Here is a picture of me in action whilst doing the Q&A session afterwards boring everyone to death with my slides.


Friday night called for a rest evening as I had quite a hard week and the shins were quite sore from the increased mileage. The speed work has also had quite an impact, and although I felt great I needed a rest day before my second cross country race with my new triathlon club Ful-on tri in Fulham. 


The race was in Guildford, so I managed to convince Johan to make the journey with me (Thanks Johan). I really looked forward to the race as the last race in the Wimbledon common was my first run after taking a month off from running following my Amsterdam marathon campaign. In hindsight I will never take that long from running if I had a choice. The physiological adaptations that only running can give your body is something that no cross training can replace, so I felt it! Without going into too much detail, I can report that that race was a little bit of a disaster, but nothing compared to the race a month later in Guildford. I never knew that one could hit the wall in a 5 mile race, but I certainly did. It might have been due to the fact that I started with the leaders and kept that going for the first two miles. These are runners that ran 30 minute 10k's so I am not too unhappy, but it was still hard to get passed by half the field before I got home.


So back to the race in Guildford. As I say I was looking forward to a solid performance, and a sensible race. It was raining all week, and I was excited to race in my brand new cross country spikes:


 The Nike zoom VIII. A report on these shoes will follow at some stage, but they were really great. The race started in dreadful conditions; it was raining a little bit, and that was followed by a nasty head wind when we started. That said the last 4 weeks of training was kicking in as I managed to settle into a steady pace and felt that I would be able to hold it and even speed up for the second lap. The first mile was fairly flat, and then we descended down a very muddy mountain where I slipped and rolled my ankle quite badly. The tendons felt quite sore, but I was having such a great time that I thought I would keep the pace and see how it goes. Two minutes later we turned sharply to go down another steep hill. Just as we were nearing the bottom I overtook a string of runners, only to feel the same right foot roll and slip underneath me. This time there was no doubt that my race was over! The foot swelled up immediately and the pain was immense. 


I hobbled back to the start and spent another 20 minutes on my feet. I made it to the finish just in time for Johan to finish the race. We headed off and stopped at a restaurant where Johan got some ice while he drove me home in my car. I went to the hospital and the x-rays showed severely torn tendons. The main culprit's medical term is the anterior tibial tendon. I also tore a number of other muscles and tendons in my ankle and foot. 

After 6 days

For the first two days I was angry at myself, and could not believe that I did not stop after the first ankle roll. Oh well, such is life, at least I am learning a new skill....walking on crutches! Doing some research it seems that I will be away from running for at least a month, and looking at my progress to date it will probably be longer. The doctors in the emergency ward told me that I would be out for longer than two months. That means that my sub 3 London Marathon campaign is no longer a possibility, although I will still run. I am quite disappointed, but I have a lot of triathlon races this summer, and my first middle and long distance triathlons to look forward to. 


I believe that the road to recovery has a lot to do with self restraint not to overdo it too soon (note to self), and also discipline to do what is necessary to get back and healthier than before, i.e. doing flexibility and strength exercises.


I will do a couple of blog posts on wider subjects like ankle rehab, and longer term planning, as I now have a bit of time on my hands!