Well, That's A Wrap

Hello Readers,

I haven’t been posting my weekly entries on the normal dates for the past two weeks due to my aforementioned foot injury in my last post. Unfortunately, my worst fears have been realized and it is a stress fracture located in my third metatarsal. After dealing with the pain for close to a week before the official diagnosis was made, I had already come to the realization that was probably what it was. Obviously I’m not at all happy about this, as my expectations coming into the last four weeks of my high school career were at an all time high. I won't be able to finish out the season, or see what I could have done at the state meet.

It’s crazy how fast things can change. One day I’m feeling on top of the world, exceeding my expectations in workouts and races, and a week later I can’t even run. I know where my fitness was, and I truly believe that I was capable of running sub 9:30 or even quicker as the fast meets actually featuring good competition were just getting ready to start. Both of the outdoor 3200s that I had run were completely solo without any competition. I was also just starting the fast work and going to start getting those splits down there in my 3200 specific workouts as well.

I'm thankful for the good block of training that I was able to put in over the past few months. Last 12 weeks mileage before the last week: 64.5, 66.5, 64.5, 69.5, 61, 62.5, 72, 65.5, 54, 63, 72, 61. My fitness has been raised to a whole new level, and I know what it takes to get to those quick times now. I feel that I wasn't able to reap all of the benefits of the training though as I was definitely aiming to peak at the end of May.

Here's the week of training that I never posted  with comments that I had during the week in my log:

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4/24-4/30-
Sunday - 7 miles easy in 46:15 (6:37/mi); 10x80m barefoot strides on 
football field at school. Felt very good and had to keep slowing myself
down on the run. (Tot. 7.5mi)

Monday - AM: 10min shakeout. The weather was cool and it felt really good.
Hoping for a quick mile tonight, and hoping for the rain to stay away!!
PM: Meet cancelled as it was supposed to storm (which didn't turn out too
bad). It was hard to tell what to do but I did 5.62mi easy in 37:24
(6:39/mi), strides, 2x200 in 35.3 and 34.03 to get the legs feeling the
pace, more strides and then .53 mile jog back home. (tot. 7mi, 8.5 on day)

Tuesday - Warmup totaling 4mi with a 2mi warmup in 13:00 and a quicker
portion and good amount of strides; 1600m race in 4:37-PR but not at all
satisfied with the race; 5mi workout/cooldown with fartlek (5x1min hard,
1min easy in the middle). Tot. of 10mi
Race thoughts- Was hoping for a big PR today with some solid competition
(4:24 guy, 4:29 guy). I ended up leading the first 1500m and then getting
out kicked. I had originally planned to run 4:32 pace but after such a slow first lap that was thrown out the window. They definitely weren't wanting to run a quick time with the
wind, and were running for place. Huge negative split: 2:22 first 800m,
2:15 second 800m! Can't complain if it's a PR, just know that I had more.

*Video of race will be uploaded soon

Wednesday - 6.5mi recovery on Golf Course in 46:00 (7:09/mi)


Thursday - AM: Running short on time before school, just a 1mi shakeout in 

7:33, very stiff



PM: WINDY! Warmup totaling a bit more than 3mi with a quick portion. 800m 
race in 2:09-poorly executed, 5min shakout, 1600m race in 4:39 in flats,
solo-felt very smooth!, some jogging around when I found out that I would
be hopping into the 4x4 for the first time in high school, 400m split in
56.85-considering that I've never officially broke 60 it was nice to see what I could run.; Only a mile and a half cooldown as I had to get on the bus(Tot. 7.5mi)

Friday - 8mi recovery in 55:56 (7:00/mi). Started feeling a pain in the ball of my foot yesterday when cooling down. I didn't feel it at all today at school, but started feeling it again midway through the run, it almost felt muscular or like plantar fasciitis, but it made me compensate my form some towards the end.

Saturday - 3mi warmup around town in 20:24 (6:49/mi), strides, planned
20min tempo, stopped at 13:12/2.22mi due to foot pain becoming unbearable.
(Tot. of 5.2mi) 

Weekly Total: 54.2 miles with the workout cut short on Saturday. The week was shaping up to be my first week under 60 miles for a very long time.

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As you can see from my log, if anything my mileage was much lower that week. It was my first week without an actual long run and it was going to be my first week under 60 miles in quite a while. I had a good amount of intensity crammed into a few days between Tuesday and Thursday and then doing a medium workout Saturday, but still nothing too far out of the ordinary. Spiking up and going really hard in that 400 probably brought the pain out some when I felt it during my cooldown, but it couldn't have been caused by that as these injuries happen over a course of time.

Looking back, I probably got a bit too caught up in not wanting my mileage to dip below a certain amount, or not wanting my easy days to be below 7 or 8 miles. I've handled mileage in the mid 70s (up to 78) quite fine for the past couple years, but that's generally during my base phase without much intensity and racing hard on top of it is a whole different stimulus. I probably could have handled this intensity with the mileage I was doing, but I don't think I executed it properly. I should have had a "down" week or a lower mileage week for me to absorb some of the training a bit better and to let my bones and muscles recover. I probably could have afforded to take a day or two off over the past couple months. It's just really hard to tell yourself that when things are going so well.

I've looked back at the things I could have changed to avoid this and have learned some more valuable lessons to take with me in the future. I can't continue to dwell on what I could have done at the end of my high school career as that's not going to help things at all. As my future Coach Martin told me on the phone "you're best days are ahead of you" along with the numerous other friends and competitors reassuring me that I've got bigger things to look forward to in the coming years.

So, the best thing for me to do is to look forward. Currently I'm trying to cross train the best that I can to maintain my fitness. I'll be off of running a total of 4-6 weeks. Right now about the only cross training I can do is aquajogging. I'm trying to increase that daily, but I have to go hard everyday in the pool to really get the effect that I want. I'm hoping I'll be able to start biking soon once I can walk in my aircast without pain (and I'm still on crutches).

I know that I'll make a great comeback and within a matter of weeks will be increasing my mileage and getting back to where I was. I'm still confident I can have the great summer of training that I envisioned, this time with more knowledge than before. I'm definitely excited for being a part of a great team and tradition next year and being able to take my running to the next level.

Lastly, when I put the complicated training aside and the racing aside, I enjoy running. I'm fortunate enough to have the ability to cover long distances on foot daily. Just being able to run and enjoy nature and the outdoors is extremely satisfying to me, and from not being able to run over the past two weeks, I've found how much I take that for granted. Giving this the proper time to heal is of utmost importance, so that I can come back and be able to enjoy running again.


Thanks to everyone for reading. It truly means a lot.

-John

Ouch.

Unfortunately, the reason I'm several days late on this blog post isn't a good one. I won't be starting out with what has become the typical, upbeat "what a great week of training" paragraph.

I'm injured and it's not looking good. What started out as a slight nuisance on Thursday during a cooldown after our meet, escalated into an unbearable pain by Saturday morning. I'll elaborate:

Thursday we had a meet in Warsaw. I was doubling up in the 800 and 1600, hoping to run a quick 800 and then get in a solid effort in the 1600 for the win. After an okay 800, I won the 1600 in 4:39 in flats feeling controlled. With that I was pretty excited, so when getting ready for my cooldown my coaches asked me if I'd be able to hop into the 4x400 as one of our runners was having a bit of an injury. Tired, but still feeling good, I figured I'd do it and put a little more speed onto a solid day of work. For not having run a 400 since Junior High and (embarrassingly) never having broken 60 in the race, I wanted to see what I could do. I ended up running 56.85 for my split which I was pleased with for a "slow distance runner". My parents weren't at the race, and since I was riding home on the bus, I had to hurry up and get my cooldown in. When cooling down on the track though, I did notice a slight pain in the bottom upper part of my foot. It was hardly noticeable though, so I didn't think much of it.

Friday I didn't notice anything when walking around during the day with flip flops, so had really forgotten about it. During my 8 miler though, I noticed the pain again midway through. It was still more of a nuisance, and definitely bearable. I couldn't distinguish whether it was the bone, my arch or what though, so did normal mileage. Afterward though it was more noticeable walking around and I started taking it a bit more seriously.

Saturday morning I had a tempo run on the agenda, and a tentative plan to get a total of 10mi in on the day. In hindsight, this was the mistake. Knowing about the foot but not wanting to have the week's mileage suffer I didn't change the plan. When on my 3mi warmup, I was somewhat confident that the pain was in my foot tendons and not the bone. The pain was a bit more noticeable but still "nothing". Did some strides and started off on my 20min tempo run. I opted to wear trainers being somewhat cautious about the foot. I felt that I was compensating some with my form as the pain was maybe 4/10 on a pain scale, but still felt fine. At 13min in though, it was as if a switch had flipped and the pain had suddenly become unbearable. I immediately stopped and was lucky that my Dad was following me, so I hopped in and headed for home, scratching the planned 200s as well. Since that point I haven't really put any weight on the foot as it has been to painful to even walk.

Left foot's purpleness compared to right one..

It's crazy how quick things can change and how I felt on top of the world even Thursday, but by Saturday couldn't even walk. I'm still on crutches, and will be until I feel that I can walk pain free. This obviously couldn't have happened at a worse time, and I've been pretty upset over the matter. The worst case scenario is that it's a stress fracture, which if that's the case, I can kiss my season goodbye and all of the work that I've put into it.

I've been getting around on crutches for the past 3 days. I went to Benningfield Chiropractic on Monday in Peoria, and as I've mentioned in a previous post, they've done some good things for me. We took the conservative approach and tried some ARP shock treatment which will help if it's not a stress fracture. I'm going back tomorrow (Wednesday) to see if there is any improvement and most likely take an x-ray, or MRI, or bone scan.

Video of the treatment:

The last few days have really only consisted of aquajogging, which isn't too exciting.

At this point, I really don't know what to think. I'm still holding out hope and will definitely update you guys when I find out more.

I'll also post the last week's log sometime soon..


Hoping for the best

-John