Building Up / Testing Out

Let the training begin…..or not

So my official training for Grand to Grand started on January 9th.  A few km’s into my run I started experiencing pain in my left ankle, by 9km’s I was very uncomfortable and needed to walk more than run.  I had no choice but to run/walk back to my car, limping.  What happened, why so much pain?

The previous week I had been out snowshoeing, and remembered rolling my ankle and thinking how lucky I was to have not been injured, could this be related?  There did not seem to be any other explanation. The Wednesday and Thursday following the snowshoeing I did have some mild discomfort but very minor.  So 6 days later could this be related to that initial ankle roll?

Regardless of how it happened, I was forced to rest.  I just could not run without pain and it was too important to me to build my base starting healthy, not working through an injury.

After a week off and still not getting better, I knew I needed to get in to see my sports doctor for a confirmation that this wasn’t serious.  UGH!  After confirming it was just a sprain, I ended up with 3.5 weeks off from my first official start day. 🙁  It was not exactly how I had planned on getting started.  I was impressed at how I handled it.  I just put it into perspective, remembering the big picture and choosing not to be discouraged.  As time dragged on, it did get harder and I did get more concerned as the ache hung on for quite a while.  After 2-3 days of no pain I tested it out on a treadmill run and was good to go.  My official back-to-training start up date was February 3rd.

Moving Forward

The goal for this first month of training is building a solid base again (post-injury) and staying healthy.  So during the week I will be mixing up my runs for variety but keeping the mileage to about 5K per run.  I will also use one of these days to test out backpacks.  I’ve now tried the Inov8 racepac 25 twice and think it’s pretty awesome.  The second time I seemed to have figured out how to adjust it perfectly for me.  I am adding weight and bulk to the pack and running 5K’s with it.

The weekend consists of double long runs, Saturday being the longer of the two.   I am adding 3K’s to both long runs every weekend.

Crazy Canadian Weather

Overall we have had an amazing winter with some cold days thrown in. Unlike last year’s record setting cold snap!  The crazy part about this winter is the extremes in our weather.  Last weekend we experienced 2 days of “feels like” -40˚C and then we experienced a record setting snow fall mid-week (51cm in one day!), only to have most of it melt with this past weekend’s milder temperatures!

These photos were taken 1 week apart – one day it was -27 (feeling like -41˚C) and the following week it was 0 during the day dropping to -6 in the evening (feeling like -11˚C).

Temperatures hovered around 0˚C after the major snow storm, melting the snow and leaving us with ankle deep puddles throughout the city, making it a seriously wet running weekend!

It was certainly not a boring week in training!  CRAZY winter running at its best!

How is the weather where you are?  Do you have a race goal you are running toward?

Keep chasing dreams, xo