Training With a Plan - Learning from My Mistakes

After completing my first marathon, my body wasn't in a good way. Both posterior tibial tendons were considerably inflamed despite regular icing and some attempts at "time off" (only running short runs), my right pes anserine (meeting point of three key tendons just below the inside of the knee) was quite tight, causing my right leg to stiffen up and make the hamstring difficult to stretch and both tibialis anterior muscles seemed to fatigue quite quickly, but would pick up during the run. The posterior tibial tendon issues were exacerbated by forefoot running and minimal shoes (although I'm not against this) and combined with the other issues, added up to a case of too much too soon.

I'd been running as much as I felt I could manage without knowing that it's not the sudden injuries that always stop a runner, but often those that build up over time. If I was going to be able to run without issues I needed to take some real time off my feet and hope that things improved. I took the next month off training, something I hadn't done since my iliotibial band issues that brought my running to a grinding halt years ago.

It was a very long month, not only due to being unable to run, but being so unsure as to when, or even if, these injuries would improve. I tried regular icing, stretching, massage, creams, NSAIDs, but it didn't really seem to be improving (although at least it wasn't getting any worse). Endless googling (yes, it's a thing - if you trust the internet) revealed that strength exercises, such as any physio would likely have recommended, may do more for recovery that simply waiting for it to heal. I added regular heel raises, one legged squats and even some hopping to my daily routine. The tendons seemed to respond quite well almost immediately. By early January I was starting to feel like I was ready to get back out and give it a go.

I wasn't about to jump back into this and ruin all my hard work (or lack there-of, really). I decided that perhaps there was merit in the "10% rule" and that I should design a training schedule around that, or at least close to it. I didn't stick to 10% increases, but I did ensure that it never increased by more than 10km a week, every 4th week was a cut back week (drop 20km) and that every new distance over 60km was held for two weeks before increasing again. I find I tend to get better results when I plan out the distances for the runs that will make up a week, and then work out what days when I get to each week. Being a software developer (and possibly a bit OCD about these things), I didn't stop there. I planned for 5 months concluding with two 100km runs in the final month (May) for a total distance of 1500km comprised of 200km in January, 240km in February, 280km in March, 320km in April and 360km in May (although I'd need to pick up an extra 100km in order to meet 1500km).

My first serious training plan in all its glory. And yes, I love Excel, maybe too much :)

Time to put some of this into practice. I ran two 5km runs over a week around 21:30 - nothing special, but everything felt okay. I even added in a 6km night run at an easy pace to see if backing up two runs in the same day would be an issue, but it seemed good. That Saturday my training partner was getting out for a run from Portarlington to St Leonards and back so I joined in. It was a half marathon length and a bit of a stretch, but I planned to take it easy. It went well and I picked up towards the end, even throwing in several 4:30min/km 800m intervals. Worried I might have overdone it, I made sure I iced straight away and took the next two days pretty easy. I kept up some 5km runs throughout the week, but saved myself for the weekend. We were heading to Lake Beaufort (not far past Skipton and before Ararat) for the weekend and I'd looked up potential hiking trails to run and found the Beeripmo Walk.

Beeripmo Walk - beautiful views and scenery throughout the whole trail.

The Beeripmo Walk is a 21km trail and intended as a two day hike. Seeing only the distances with no elevation graphs, that seemed quite manageable, so I geared up early Saturday morning and drove 30 minutes to the starting point at Richards camp ground. I found it without too much trouble (although it didn't look like the place attracted too many visitors) and started out the run. I'd brought electrolytes with plenty of water, protein bars and some gels, so I had more than enough to keep me going. It started out okay, but I quickly noticed that there was going to be some steep climbing. It took me 40 minutes to climb the first 4km which, according to my elevation charts from the run, was 400m gain. I picked up for the next 2km with downhill and flat and then hit another 200m climb over the next 2km. It was hard going, but it was worth it. The trail seemed hardly used, so it was a little overgrown and harder to navigate, but it made you really feel like you were experiencing something in its raw form, rather than a well cultivated path worn in by others.

At the Beeripmo Campground - the end of day one if you're hiking it.

After the first two climbs it was a lot more reasonable, but still undulating. I reached the climb to Mount Buangor, which is the main lookout on the walk, and headed up. The view was great despite the previous overcast weather, drizzle and fog (which actually added a lot to the feel of the run) and was worth the trip up, although it wasn't the climb that the first two were. I headed back down and ended up following the wrong marker and getting 1.5km (downhill) to Beeripmo Campground again before turning back and heading the right way through the lookout turn-off. The run out from there was great as the end drops 500m steadily over the last 6km; great fun and a relief after the climbs earlier. The whole trail at this point was literally covered in thousands of orange butterflies that flew into the air as you ran through - I actually had to cover my face as I ran so I didn't inhale one of them. An amazing experience.

The view from Mount Buangor Lookout.

After Beeripmo I was feeling pretty good and everything was holding up okay. I'd met the weekly distance goals of 40, 50 and 60 so far for the month and had 70 for the last week. I was keeping on top of recovery (icing, protein, stretching and strength exercises), so I was bouncing back better than before. I was planning to run a 50km at some stage as the next big thing and it occurred to me that if I ran it before the end of the month I could possibly maintain one marathon length or longer run every month until the century. I'd been watching Steve Born's (from Hammer Nutrition) talk titled 'Improve Your Athletic Performance' and formulated a new nutrition plan based on Science in Sport GO! Electrolyte as the base, gels for additional calories and 1/3 ZipVit protein bar an hour for the fat and protein component. It added up as a nutritional substitute to Perpetuem and was a more comfortable choice at the time as it was less of a change from what I knew was working for me.

I headed out on my half century from home to Queenscliff and back at 6 in the morning and I was to meet up with my running partner somewhere between Drysdale and Queenscliff and run with him for part of his 35km. I managed to track 5min/km until I caught him 22km in (he'd started from Drysdale later on) and we ran together until just outside of Drysdale where I managed to pick up 5:30min/km until home. It was a pretty tough run, and had seemed entirely too ambitious, but I pulled up pretty well and now had a 50km under my belt in 5 hours for a 6 min/km average. I finished January with 213km, 13km over the goal and was on track. It was about that time we signed up for two loops of Roller Coaster...