Winding back to post marathon things were going about as expected. For the first week after the race my calves were tight, tight, tight, which stopped me from running although otherwise my body was feeling pretty good, which is not necessarily a bad thing since my body needed some rest and my calves forced me to have. Nonetheless, it didn't stop me from confirming my intention to do Melbourne Marathon, to capitalise on my great fitness and form leading into Gold Coast, and with a change to program brought about by a baby in the house, I was excited to see what I could do in October.
I started running again in the second week, feeling pretty good overall, with no sore spots and just some residual calf tightness that I worked through. By the end of that week I was looking to start putting some sessions back into training, along with drills and things, all in small amounts but enough to mark the start of pointing towards October.
Into the third week post marathon and by mid-week I was conscious of some soreness in the joint of my middle toe on my left foot. My self assessment suggested it was some inflammation, and not a dreaded "stressie", and hoped it would pass with a couple of small actions - NSAIDS and a day off. Sadly it didn't, but got worse, not quite so I couldn't run, but it was mightly uncomfortable to do so. It felt like my toe was going to explode and drop off…pretty sore. I'm still not sure what prompted it, possibly a combination of some drills and form work, but not sure.
That third week of running went well, otherwise, but I could see a break coming up…hopefully only short. A few days rest helped only a little so I checked in to see the doctor on a Friday evening and, as I hoped, she injected it in two spots with some cortisone, saying to rest until Tuesday when it should be OK to go…fantastic!! Over that weekend it was so-so, which is often the case post cortisone, then it usually improves rapidly. But this time was different.
While I felt that the inflammation settled, it was replaced with a massive bruise in the area of the injections - a purple, 20 cent piece size bruise. It seemed that perhaps the needle had hit a blood vessel, or something, and this was the aftermath…and it hurt, also. Tuesday came and went with no chance of running, and so it continued for another week while gradually the bruise disappearend, but the symptoms remained although slowly improved.11 days after the injection I went for a run, my toe / foot hurt on every step. Fail. Two days later the same, and the next day and the next day. Unfortunately it seemed the bruising (or whatever it was) would need rest from running to settle…it was driving me nuts. Prospects for the marathon were not looking good, but I held onto some hope.
4 more days off running and I tried again, and it still hurt but was a lot better - positive signs. The next day, however, broke me. It was really sore and I had to walk back to work (lunch-time run). The marathon was off, plan A was back on, and I knew I had to wait until there were no symptoms before I tried running again.
It's now 4+ weeks since I first stopped running, and 3.5+ weeks since the injection and I think I am very close to running…perhaps tomorrow. I'll see how it is when I wake up…the last 2 days have been pretty good. I just want to run again.
But rather than being a story of complete woe, I've used the non-running time to get right back into some circuit exercises, along with core strength work, which is neglected a little when in full training. It's felt good to burn in a different way each morning in the back yard with my little set of dumbells and things, and it's also been nice to commute to/from work on my (push) bike for a few weeks…although I'm ready to give the commuter bike a rest now!!
Also, of course, there's a little person in the house now who I want to give some attention to, and although I've been keeping fit, little Edward (and Ms. A) have been a great alternative outlet for my emotional energy.
So once I can run again it's onto to Plan A, with the goal of running a sub-16min 5km and sub 33min 10km. I also hope to run some track races, like 800's, 1500's and the like. I haven't had this kind of focus since school, so it will be an interesting challenge, and one I'm looking forward to!!
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