AHH my foot is hurting now. Why does my foot hurt Christopher McDougal? Why?
I don't know if my left leg is
ever going to be the same, but I have been training through it. I still have an achy calf/shin, inner
hip/groin, and occasional back pain all on the left side. It hasn’t got any worse and I know nothing is
broken or snapped because Dr. Doss has been over me numerous times with his
magic wand (ultrasound). Maybe it has
something to do with nerve damage? I
assume 4 cm cracks in the largest bone in the body don’t magically heal
themselves, even after 3 years. So I
will keep on going. (Update- The last 6
out of 7 days were good, Yesterday the hip was bothering bad but I worked on it
mid run and managed to get 5 good hill repeats in. Today, the 18th my big toe on the right foot is really hurting. Took the day off)
I have been have been having a
great couple of weeks on the trails.
Mileage is the highest it’s been in 3 years, getting in a lot of hilly
runs on my days off, and just enjoyed the spring season here in Southwest Australia
with abundant waterfalls and wildflowers.
I still want to head to the Stirling Range but commitments and people in Perth
coupled with the fact that I am starting to enjoy the Perth routine are keeping me local. I don't want to throw off the rhythm I am
currently in.
The Perth Hills district is a
great place to train. I have been
camping out near Mundaring Weir during my days off. It is quite hilly by Australian standards and
scenic. I have the option to run trails
around the weir, hop on the Bibbulmun track for an out and back, or just run
the unmarked local stuff around the Zig Zag road on Gooseberry hill. My favourite just might be the 15.5km Eagle
view loop in John Forrest National Park.
Right now in Spring there are wildflowers and some pretty epic
waterfalls from the heavy rains namely National Park Falls and Hovea
falls.
I found the steepest hill I could
find in Kalamunda National Park in the Perth Hills district. I then did it 5 times pushing both the down
and up. It took about 7 minutes on the
up and 4 minutes on the down. I really
need to work on the technical downhill running.
That is where I lost most of my time in last year’s Climbathon. Interestingly, my downhill speed got
slightly quicker on the downs as the workout progressed but started to fade bad on the ups. This indicates the down is more skill based. If I practice it, I will get faster. Hmm.
I started following Kilian on
Facebook. Every day he comes out with
some pretty epic picture of him adventuring in the mountains with friends or
travelling some distant land like Russia.
It seems like he is living a pretty awesome life and just dominating the
sport of mountain and trail running.
Marathon Talk had an interview with Jeff Eggleston. I finished second to Jeff Eggleston
several times on some hill climb races in Arizona around 2009-10. I liked the fact that he was doing those
types of events while being a professional marathoner. Obviously, that strength work he was doing a
few years and consistency overtime is paying off. He did a podcast recently on marathon
talk. His signature long run workout
caught my attention. It is basically a
morning and afternoon run of 25 km each with a total of 75% of it done at
marathon race pace. The interesting part
was how he restrict his diet in between runs to train his body to burn
fat. Think about it, 50km in a day with
37-38 km (23 miles) at race pace. I may
have to try a modification of that for my future ultra/marathon training.
I heard on the radio an interview with people about what has changed in Perth in the last 20 years. The number 1 thing was the Diversity. People coming from all over the world to live here. It truly is a diverse place. I jumped in the car today to drive around the mine site and there wasn't one Australian. Kiwi, South African, Brit and American. An Italian Backpacker staying near Fremantle told me he is learning French faster english because there are so many of them hanging out there. It is really cool to live in such a diverse place.
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