Buffalo Creek Half Marathon: Training week 8

Well I have reached the half way point in my training for this race, so this is the point where I really start to amp up the training. Let's just get right into this and let me explain how the week went down.

MONDAY: When I woke up Monday morning I had very uncomfortable feeling on my right heal. The best way I could explain the feeling would be, it felt as though my heal had collapsed. I did some research and I believe what I was feeling was the early stages of planters fasciitis. They say this is very painful if it gets out of hand, but to be honest I was just feeling discomfort rather than pain. A lot of the website's I went on all had really good advice on how to control it from getting out of hand and techniques you could use while running to prevent further injury. I did not want to skip a run on Monday so I went with my scheduled 8 miles. I went slower than normal, but I made sure to strike with my mid-foot rather then my tippy toes. I also made sure to shorten my stride which really seemed to work. The run went great and I felt great until I got home and my foot started to hurt a bit. They say ice helps a lot so for most of the night I had my foot in a bucket of ice while I was watching television.

TUESDAY: GYM DAY: Normally on Tuesday I would be doing my speed workout, but with my foot I didn't want to do something that would make it worst. I headed to the gym to do some cross and strength training. First I did 6 miles on the bike, followed by some circuit training. My foot didn't bother me to much this day but I still wore my compression socks to bed just for added recovery.

WEDNESDAY: Even though my foot was feeling good I picked a course that was flat and easy. I did 5 miles and each mile I picked up the speed to see how my feet felt. I was really surprised to see that after the run I had very little pain.

THURSDAY: Being the half way point the one thing I did not want to do was have 2 days where I was not running, but I wanted to play it safe for the week so instead of running I used this day to stretch and foam roll my legs. As the week went on my foot seemed to feel better. It still feels uncomfortable at times but there hasn't been any pain.

FRIDAY: REST DAY: My wife and I headed to the Pirate game for the evening. We got lucky and were given luxury box tickets since there was a mix up with our previous sales rep for the team. We only have 2 season tickets but were given 4 box tickets, so the others who split the tickets were able to come in the box as well. The game was great and the seats were amazing.

SATURDAY: Long Run: I was confident that my foot was good enough to do my long run, but as an added precaution I took it slower than normal. I ran 15 miles with a pace of 9:50. Normally I would I run it at a 9 minute pace but slowing down really helped and made the run go smooth. I felt great and was really happy to see how easy the 15 miles went.  Saturday night a good friend of mine was getting married so Amanda and I were at the reception. It was a great wedding and there was a lot of alcohol drank that night.

 

 

 

SUNDAY: Today I took another rest day. This will be the last week I take 2 rest days until the week before the race. Amanda, myself, and our friend Abby and Aaron are the season ticket holders for the Pirates. We got a 250 dollar gift card for Hyde Park Steak House so we planned to go to the game and use then out to dinner. The game sucked since we lost but the food at Hyde Park was amazing. I am a steak nut so it was the best place to get a gift card for.  I wish I would of taken a picture of the steak so I could show you how perfect it looked. 

 

 

This upcoming week I start a diet to cut some weight before the race and I will continue to amp up the training.

 

 

How did your week go?