Those who run seem to have all the fun

It’s been 12 weeks since my last run and it looks like I’m not about to start back up anytime soon, (soon as in the next few weeks).

There is plenty of good news though.

The injury is finally starting to feel significantly better. For the first 9 weeks I was barely noticing a difference and at times I felt as though I was just telling people (and telling myself) that it was getting better. Now I can confidently say it’s improving.

The last set of X-rays showed that my metatarsal head is healing and that the architecture of the bone looks good.

In the past few weeks I’ve been able to cross-train and I feel like an athlete again. There was a four week period where I amassed a scant 3 hours of cross-training, total. On Saturday I got in as much biking as I did in one whole month.

My next MRI is schedule for early May and should be a good indicator if there is revascularization in the bone. My 4th metatarsal is still a little tender when I prod or squeeze my foot with my hand. That pain is decreasing as well as the discomfort I get when I get up on my toes (which I try and only test about once every 10 days or so).

I’ll have a lot of work to do once I’m back running but I can be patient when I’m running. I’ve been through this before and know that the extra weight comes off, the fitness comes back and the splits improve in due time. In 2014 I took off 3.5 months due to injury (with no cross-training) and was able to come back stronger than before.

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Cross-training for me consists of pool running 5 times per week and spin bike 6-7 times per week. Right now I’m just focused on volume and doing small fartlek workouts here and there. Eventually I’ll add in elliptical and increase my quality.

It’s probably best that I wasn’t cross-training this whole time because I think I only have the head space for about 6-8 weeks of proper cross-training. If all goes well I’ll start running again as I get sick of cross-training.

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Every week that goes by the more I count my blessings that I had a good race in Fukuoka 4 months ago. If I was dealing with this injury and the last marathon that I was happy with was one and half years ago it would be much harder to believe I could still run a good one. Even though Fukuoka seems like ages ago, four months isn’t really that long ago. It definitely helps keep my motivation up.

The other thing that keeps me motivated in the pool and on the bike is the prospect of racing a good marathon. The marathon is still my driving force to train hard and at this point preparing properly for a fall marathon is very much within the realm of possibility.

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Louis continues to grow, and grow, and grow… It’s quite amazing to see him develop day to day and take in new experiences. Marie and I took him to the Around the Bay race today. We were too afraid of the forecasted rain to watch the suffering on the hill so we opted for the indoor finish (in the end the rain held off). The good part is the finish area is a better place to catch up with friends.

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I’ve been testing Maurten drink on the bike and I really like it. I’m really interested to see how it will go down when I’m running, which is the real test. I like that it doesn’t have artificial flavour or colour and packs in a ton of carbs even though it doesn’t seem like it. Between Maurten and Endurance Tap I like my line-up of simple and effective fuelling.

One thing these sub-2 hours projects are focusing on is maxing-out fuelling. For most people (me included) properly fuelling takes practice to get good at. My stomach couldn’t handle many carbs when I first started out and now I’m better at taking in drinks while running marathon pace. Getting the right products that work for you is a big part of the puzzle and makes such a big difference in the marathon.