Friday July 4, 2025
BANFF went great! Did nearly 40 miles of mountain hiking in 4 days and had no issues at all. Went for a 17m run at Afton with Jonah shortly after getting home and when I got back to the car and took my shoes off, I noticed a tender spot on the top of my right foot. Didn't really think much of it at first, but the top of my foot seemed swollen and it was achy. Over the last couple of weeks, it seems to get better when I run and worse when I don't. It's better during the day and the worst when I first wake up in the morning. Marcus "diagnosed" it as tendinitis so that's what I'm going with. Generally speaking, it's okay to continue running so long as the pain is less than a 3. I've never had more than a 1-2. Icing feels good, but doesn't seem to help. Advil doesn't doo much either.
Missed my scheduled 30m run last week. I had planned 2 loops at Afton, but Kylah was looking at an apartment and wanted me to meet her so doing 2 loops was going to be risky so I stopped after 1 loop. On July 3rd, in extreme heat conditions, I prepped to get my 30m run in instead! Brought a cooler with ice water and a second one with coke, gingerale, a banana, peanut butter mm's, hard boiled eggs, a luna bar and potato chips. My plan was to do 2 loops, but the first loop was going to be 20m and the second loop was going to be 10m. Mentally, that works better for me!
Got to Afton around 8:15am and it was already 75° with dew points in the 70's. Sunny, but most of the park is in the shade, with some wind. Used my 3L water pack and ran out just was I was getting into the campground around mile 14. Had noticed a weird feeling on the bottom of my right foot and it was starting to bug me on my ankle, too, so I took the time to take my shoe off to see what was what. I've never had this happen before, but my insole had slipped and was coming out of the back of the shoe! I was sweating so much and all of it was dripping down my legs so my socks and shoes were soaked so I think this was contributing. No matter how often I dried off with the towel I carry, the sweat just picked up again immediately. I fixed the insole, filled my water and didn't have issues again.
Ate my grilled cheese sandwich on the river road around mile 15. At mile 20, I was back to the car. I was seriously looking forward to drinking that coke! Drank half while also eating some mm's. Stretched some, put the ice from my cooler in my pack so I started with a full 3L pack again and headed off for loop #2. In hindsight, I should have applied more sunblock! All the sweat and toweling off, along with more sun in the park than I had hoped for and I was somewhat burnt by the end of the day.
The second time through the campground, around mile 25, I didn't need more water, but I stopped to cool down and let the water roll down my neck and on my head. I could have stayed there forever!
Temps ended in the high 80's and was just relentless. Overall, I did okay! I didn't have any stomach issues and no chafing although I discovered 2 small blisters on my left heel (I haven't had blisters in years). This day was all about getting through it physically, but mostly mentally. I walked as much as I needed to. I just wanted to get the miles in without getting ill!
Really enjoyed the AC in the car after! Along with more coke, mm's and a bag of potato chips. I was quite shivery at home that night, but I wasn't ill and I think the house was just too cold after I'd spent all day in the heat.
Slept well and woke up with somewhat tired legs, but no soreness. I was surprised at how good I felt actually! Ran (well ran/walked) 5m today in the middle of the day when it was 90°. Crazy. It was awful. Taking Saturday off and will do hills again Sunday.
Weirdly my tendinitis feels the best it's felt! Definitely not gone, but definitely not worse.
Now that there's only 8 weeks until race week and I've got one 30m done, I've put a lot of thought and research into week 6 (4 weeks before race week) where a lot of plans have you running a 50m race. Since I'm not interested in finding a race, the consensus seems to be to NOT do a training 50m run which is what I had originally planned. I had either thought of doing it on the SHT (Alex had recommended Silver Bay to Cramer) or do 3 loops at Afton, but most of my research suggests that it's just not worth the risk of injury and it's better to pair a 30m and 20m run back to back instead so that's the current plan. Maybe I'll see if one my pacers can join me each day?
