Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring
 

One of the regular set.

10 then 5e side on the eccentric calf drops - not sure if I should continue those, or given the arches more of a rest before doing those as a future preventative?

Also did a minute of toe/arch scrunches, some held for ~2sec (at which point it almost cramps), and some fast.

Overall today the feet aren't too bad.

L-foot was sore getting out of bed, then went away after an hours for largely the rest of the day (though it did get a bit sore during a lot of standing, it was a notable 2nd place to the R-foot after the 1st hour of the day.)

Both feet definitely sore on the ball rolls / steps, and a bit on the wabble walks (which I've done 3 times as of 4pm.)

Mostly the feet seemed to get slowly sore over the course of the day (where I spent about 5.5 hours walking around a field, mostly on my feet - taking videos of the US team at the WUOC Relay.

Given I raced at ~50% effort yesterday, I'm quite please I'm not worse off.

Event: DVOA Hickory Run Sand Spring
 

After a bit of rest, and because orienteering has been relatively nice to my feet (and because it was one last day in Switzerland I could do some technical orienteering) I decided to run a course.

Overall I am quite pleased with my result.

Technically, I'd aggresively estimate I lost 3 minutes of time across the course, largely just hesitation. It was great to get out and see what the kids have been running on - this was quite a challenging area - though not my favorite for a regular course. Contours & fields and route-choices (mostly just side-hill optimization) were much like BAOC. Forests were a bit different, but not much different than a mix of a few thicker US forests. There were some crazy large rocks strewn around here and there, but then many areas of few rocks and intricate contours.

Physically, I prepared largely as I did for O-ringen with a lot of tape and a gradual walk & jogs warm up. One taping difference: on the R-foot, did and arch curl/crunch while placing the diagonals of tape under the arch. This felt a little tighter than past tapings, especially as I initially stood up I thought I might have to remove ~3 minute worth of tape... But it loosened just enough that it didn't bit to hard into the skin. AND, this was the best my foot had felt all day - at least on the initial walk, and even partway through the warmup, the R-foot was blessedly pain free. During the race, the feet did gradually get sore, and I did have to take it quite careful on the downhills (largely landing on toes), but I felt I could push uphill full (current) speed, and it was thick enough, that even if my top foot-okay speed was 7-8min/km, that was rarely a limiting factor.

Feet did feel a bit sore after I finished - did some sandals in the field as a way to try and recover a bit.

On exercise bike at work - at ~700 calories per hour 'pace'

On the injury...

Tried a pure uphill (20% grade) trail, fast/hike, light jog as a 'training' yesterday. Workout was decent, but even that may have been a bit much for my R-foot. I felt it a bit on the uphill - very little ground contact pressure pain, but some tension pain.

Walking around the (paved/cobblestone) city afterwards, my R-foot got pretty upset. In addition to stopping to massage the foot, I had to try changing shoes at one point to keep walking moderately.

Not quite sure if the uphill push, or the hour+ of city walking was the bad thing. I guess I can test that on Friday, at the Sprint Relay, after *not* pushing up a hill as a workout.

By the evening, after a bunch of sitting (which sometimes makes this worse) and walking in arch flip-flops instead of running shoes, it had calmed down substantially.

On a fun note...

I got to see Oriana race the WUOC Sprint - in which she apparently pushed so hard as to have PR'ed a mile and 2 mile - while navigating. :)

C • Stuff 2

Exercise bike. Not too much as I'm working my way up (and it's not as exciting as running...)

Did some strength too, and foot waddles & rolls.

Feet sore walking around today, and they're definitely more sore after each day's run, so..

Planning to not run today, for the first time since 2009.

Hopefully that'll be the start of the feet getting better.

C • the end of an era 6

Event: World University Orienteering Championships 2022
 

While there are still ups & downs - today was slightly better than yesterday - the trendline is suggesting the end is near for my running streak..

Last time I ran at a given effort (where 100% is full race pace, 50% is a typical training run, and 0% is barely shuffling above a fast-walk)

100%	7 weeks ago	2-field/forest sprints as a pre-Europe test - R-foot quite sore during 2nd Sprint, and after.
90%	5 weeks ago	WMOC forest qualifier - slipped at one point, causing a very similar issue in by L-foot (they're both sore now, at different stages of the day)
80%	5 weeks ago	WMOC middle final - sore enough after, that I skipped the long final
50%	3 weeks ago	O-Ringen - with a lot of tape, stretching and long warmups, I was able to jog around these

Since then, it's been nothing but 0-20% efforts, with even very slow paved efforts knocking me back hard.

Today wasn't quite as bad as yesterday, but my R-foot is still pretty upset with me after the run, walking around and getting up from my desk, simply for doing 2* 12 minute miles on soft sawdust.