This is my first article for XC Ottawa and I thought I would focus what has affected my training for the last few weeks. Two weeks ago from today, I was lying flat on my back, completely bagged after finishing my first W*A*R (Whitehorse Adventure Run). This was only my second time racing this distance (approximately 21km) and, while I didn’t think of it before hand, it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to do such a long running race so early in the season. On the morning of the race, I woke to rain, which quickly turned to sleet, and then progressed to snow and blowing snow (on June 10th).
The race itself is billed as an all-terrain half-marathon, and it quickly lived up to its name. When we left (in teams of two) at 9:00 in the morning, it was zero degrees Celsius and the snow was starting to pile up. The race led us all around downtownWhitehorse
In the days after WAR, I suffered from screaming quads, hip flexors and calves as my body repaired the damage I had done to it. Alas, muscular pain was not the only thing my body needed to repair, and as I resumed training two days later, I started to experience a deeper pain in the front of my foot, just behind my toes. This pain was aggravated the longer and harder I trained, especially when running. This resulted in shortened workouts, more biking and roller-skiing to minimize impact and an internet search to figure out what was wrong with my foot. The closest thing I found to my symptoms was called Metatarsalgia, which is a fancy word for bruising and irritating the bones at the front of your feet. While I am still recovering from this, I have found that using moldable insoles helps to reduce pain. However, the best thing I can do for it now is give it rest.
The race itself is billed as an all-terrain half-marathon, and it quickly lived up to its name. When we left (in teams of two) at 9:00 in the morning, it was zero degrees Celsius and the snow was starting to pile up. The race led us all around downtown
In the days after WAR, I suffered from screaming quads, hip flexors and calves as my body repaired the damage I had done to it. Alas, muscular pain was not the only thing my body needed to repair, and as I resumed training two days later, I started to experience a deeper pain in the front of my foot, just behind my toes. This pain was aggravated the longer and harder I trained, especially when running. This resulted in shortened workouts, more biking and roller-skiing to minimize impact and an internet search to figure out what was wrong with my foot. The closest thing I found to my symptoms was called Metatarsalgia, which is a fancy word for bruising and irritating the bones at the front of your feet. While I am still recovering from this, I have found that using moldable insoles helps to reduce pain. However, the best thing I can do for it now is give it rest.
If you want more information on the WAR, including results, go to http://www.yukonorienteering.ca/war/index.htm if you want to see more, you can view the routes taken by some of the teams at http://rg.orienteering.ca/cgi-bin/reitti.pl?act=map&id=185&&kieli= . To view the routes, click on “choose class” on the top right of the screen, select any or all of the team names with a star beside them (our team name was Magical Mystery Tour), hit view animation and then hit start. You can control the speed and zoom of the routes taken and/or look at entire routes without the animation.
Interesting Reading. . .
"Sustaining People in Motion"