Then, one day, just like that, it's gone!
That's more or less what happened in my recovery from that heel injury 10 weeks ago. I had to stay off the road for four whole weeks, the longest such period since I began to "seriously" train six some years ago. What helped with the healing was this foot massage wooden roller. More on this later.
After a four-week layoff and mindful of the need to be patient in resuming training, I've been very careful in slowly increasing mileage, over the subsequent six weeks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 4, 6, 6.5, 7, 3 (5K race), 4, 8, 4, 5 (8K race), 12, 4, 6, 4, 15 (last Sunday), generally skipping a day in between runs. The 5K and 8K races were two of several that my kids and I run together each year, kind of a family tradition. So, I still ran them--though cautiously--and was quite relieved each time that the left heel came through fine. As with mileage, I slowly re-introduced workout components: strides, hill sprints, hill repeats, tempo runs, long runs (i.e., 11 miles or more). The first long run was two Sundays ago (12 miles); the second one was last Sunday (15 miles). Both were ~1 min/mi slower than my average long run pace leading up to Pocono.
The following pace chart shows the two recent long runs compared with the three long runs before Pocono. The loss in fitness, due to the month-long layoff, is significant, even considering the difference between the cooler pre-Pocono and the warmer September temperatures. The three long runs were at ~GMP for my current BQ (8:58), and I mostly hydrated and fueled on the run. The only exception was during the April 17th run, around Mile 5, on a hill up to the campus of Cornell University. In contrast, during both of the September runs, I had to (or felt as) take a 0.10-0.20-mile water/fuel walk every five miles or so. The two "sub-GMP" miles (12, 13) of the September 25th run were ~30-40 sec slower than the comparable pace before Pocono. (I usually try to run sub-GMP for the back half of long runs.) The lost fitness, though, is being slowly regained. Compared with September 18th, the run on the 25th was 7 sec/mi fitter. :) It felt easier and the legs felt stronger, even though the run was three miles longer.
So, the main conclusion from my recent injury and recovery is that the estimated 10% decrease in fitness after a month-long layoff seems on the low side. Or, there needs to be an age-adjustment to the estimates! The decrease in fitness is not just physical but also mental--indeed, perhaps especially mental. In the first longish run, all of six miles, two weeks after I began running again, I struggled against wanting to stop and walk at just over three miles!
Back to healing the heel. During that month off the road, I read up on various foot core exercises and ways to improve foot strength and began to incorporate some of them into my workouts. Then, I came across this article on plantar fasciitis and the benefits of deep-tissue massage. So, I dug out the foot massage wooden roller (photo above), which has been lying around the house mostly unused. I began using it daily, with one foot or both feet, with varying pressure, and with different combinations of rollers massaging different parts of the sole. Totally unscientifically (!), but I think the massager has played a major role in my heel's recovery. In any case, I've incorporated it into my post-run routines.
How do I get back sort of on track for the upcoming Harrisburg Marathon in November? This is the end of Week 10 already, in the 16-week training cycle. Tomorrow's long run should be 19 miles. I'm planning to do 17. I should have already done nine previous long runs (of 11-18 miles). I've done two so far, 12 and 15. There are four more long runs, before the 3-week taper, including the Baltimore Half as a training run. I'm planning to get up to 20 miles for the last long run. Still, I probably should readjust expectations for Harrisburg. I'm definitely rethinking how to run that race.
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