This week I was ready to continue the good progress I'd made already this winter. I had another race on Sunday and having performed reasonably well in my double header race, I was looking to put in a solid weeks training, finishing it off with another strong race performance at the Saab Salomon Turbo X trail run. But my week didn't quite go to plan.
It all started well enough, with a couple of easy recovery runs on Monday, and a reasonably solid Tuesday speed session on the road. Running the same session as a month ago, 6 x 1400 on the road, I was able to complete each rep between five and ten seconds faster than my previous attempt. Things were looking up. However, this all changed during Wednesday mornings innocent looking twenty minute recovery run.
It's annoying when you get injured, but its part and parcel of athletics. You expect a muscle pull or a tight tendon and taking time out is the only way to recover, but to take time out for a blister seems ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is when it's because you're wearing a novelty pair of socks, just because you've been too lazy to wash your stinky running socks! But that's what happened, and to make matters worse the blister got torn off during my longer afternoon run, and the muddy off road nature of the run did me no favours. An infected swollen toe kept me out of action for two days. It didn't even look that bad so I got no sympathy, not even from my Mummy! But it really blooming hurt. I wore flip-flops everywhere, which looked quite odd in Asda in the middle of winter!
With a race on Sunday I was eager to see if I could run on my bad foot, so I turned up for training on Saturday morning. It was not feeling good during the warm up. Every step was painful, and I feared it would get worse when we ran faster. Amazingly it actually felt better when we were going for it. The extra force was pushing my toes flatter as I landed, meaning the toe was prevented from rubbing on the inside of my shoe. So I gave myself the OK to race, all I had to do was alter my warm up.
Sunday morning came round and I prepared for the race. As it was to be a trail race with lots of mud and water I plastered up my toe and attempted to waterproof it with duck tape! All in all, a highly scientific bit of bodge work. I then opened the curtains to have a look at what conditions we'd be running in - SNOW!
Driving to the race I was well aware that it was going to be a cold one, and it truly was. One slight benefit was that as soon as my bad toe got dunked in the first puddle it was immediately frozen and numbed to any pain, but I just couldn't get the rest of me going.
I was stuck in second gear and as much as I wanted to press the accelerator, to keep up with the leaders, there was just nothing there to press. I was OK in third wading through puddles with shards of ice floating about, climbing over sand banks and through thick mud, until I fell over. I managed to fall into the deepest coldest puddle on the course. I went in head first, and came out frozen, soaking wet and covered in a strange sand coloured gloop!
I completely lost it from then on. I was cold and not very happy and I had no confidence going into any puddle, “tippy-toeing” my way through, losing masses of time but ensuring I stayed upright. I got through the rest of the race ok, but was frozen. I changed quickly into two t-shirts, two fleece tops, a gillet, coat, hat and two pairs of gloves and socks. With the heater on full I was just about thawed out by the time I was home. Now I'm dry I can look back and admit I actually enjoyed it, but I don't think my foot did. As I thawed out, the pain got worse. My toe was not happy and let me know all day and night. But I'd do it again. I just hope I still have ten toes to do it with!
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