Week 4 was somewhat of a misadventure.
After my 21.6 km run on the previous thursday, I took off my shoes to discover that I had bruised my toes and pulled a nail partly out from under the quick. I had pushed the toes into my shoes during the run.
I spent a few days putting aloe vera gel on to the injury, and took a day off running. At one stage I clipped a bit of the protruding toenail and a large amount of clear fluid came out.
So with a larger pair of shoes, I ran on the monday, 10.6 kms. the first lap of 5.3 kms in 29.51, av hr 136. The first lap was a warm up - feet were still a bit sore.
I ran the second lap in 27.43, av hr 147. I used an interval approach of speeding up to hr 150+ and jogging back down to 135. This lap was a recent pb,
I ran again on wednesday, 5.3 kms. in 28.46. It was raining and windy. I had a tailwind and ran quite fast for the first 500 metres, and then at a reasonable pace for the next 2 kms. Then I turned into a headwind which slowed me down for 1 1/2 kms. The weather became worse so I went home early.
Run 3 thursday, 15.9 kms. lap 1, another slow warm up of 30.29, av hr 129.
lap 2 was an effort, 28.26, av hr 144.
lap 3 in 29.35. av hr 134. In this lap I had to slow down when a ham threatened to start cramping, a good indication that I was at the end of my leg strength. All in all it was a good work-out, with little energy left at the end of it.
The week was a bit of a hick-up. with 32 kms run in 2hrs 55 mins. down quite a bit from the 47 kms run the week before.
Nevertheless the focus of effort was directed at glut max and quads. these muscles, along with the ham group, are the large muscles used in running fast. As I was running towards the limits of current ability, it became apparent that I had to use core muscles to maintain a better technique. The idea here is to firstly start sucking up the gut - diaphram contraction I guess - and move the navel towards the spine. Doing this activates core muscles, which improves the posture, relaxing back muscles and glut max. works for me! this technique can be used almost anywhere - sitting down for example, and invariably relaxes back muscles which otherwise take the strain of a bad posture.
The injured toes I suffered this week reminds me of an occasion when I ran down the scree slopes of Ben Nevis. It was above the snow line and great fun to be running, sliding, and jumping down the slope.
Unfortunately I ran out of 'vastus medialis' the support muscles above the knee. Those muscles screamed as I finished the downhill trek.
Back at the hostel I discovered that I had massively bruised my big toes, with blood blisters under the nails. I lost half of each nail - diagonally accross the nail, and it took about a year for them to grow back!
As an adventurous runner, running downhill is hard to beat. There's a certain leap of faith involved as you launch into a 3 metre drop.
I've done this a few times. It helps to have strong shoes and rugged clothing - invariably you are going to be sliding down on your behind.
It also helps to have large vastus medialis muscles! You grow these muscles by walking down hills, something I am yet to program into my training.
I've also been advised that for long runs and downhill runs, it pays to wear shoes that are a bit big so that you don't cram your toes into the front of the shoe!
Cheers dears!
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