Running

Achilles are a little tight, should I just htfu and do another 5k tonight? Would feel like a wasted opportunity if I didn't but not sure if it's going to be over doing things. I wouldn't say its painful enough to stop me going out.

fundamentally, you shouldn't be losing toenails every time you run a half marathon, and its likely to be from repeated impact of the top or front of the offending toe which despite not having seen you run i'd imagine is not part of your normal gait, so something is causing impact and it could be sliding, it could be fit, it could be the seam of your socks, or it could be that they are too small.

its not likely to be something you notice when you first put your shoes on or first set off, or indeed be something that causes you a lot of pain while running so it might be hard to identify when looking at your feet in the shoes in the cold light of day..

I've never actually lost a nail, what happens (seems to be) that the nail(s) are folded backward on themselves, this causes a crease in the nail and the front of the nail lifts away from the nail bed.

Christmas before last this was definitely caused by wearing shoes that were too small, which I have since got rid of.

My own view is that something in my gait changes when I am fatigued - I've been running 5k's recently, the odd 10k, so 22k was well above what my body was/is used to.

I'm basing this on having none of these nail issues, in the same shoes, at 5/10k distance.

I curl my toes downwards (hard to do opposite!) sometimes when running tired... Might you be doing this & catching your toenail as a result?

Quite possibly, the entire tip of my toe is sore, not just the nail-area.

I'm guessing jumping from zero miles to 25 miles for the week was probably unwise, but I'm travelling at the moment without my bike and had to do something.

had to do something.

$1.25 rib night

Yes HTFU (sorta). i.e, go for a 30 min jog instead of anything too fast/long.

Did 6k, glad that I did.

Back to proper training again. Club hill interval session tonight, killer.

Went running. Garmin still won't upload. Should have stayed at home.

If you can get a file off it (.fit or whatever) and it still won't upload let me know.

(I still owe you that script for cleaning up the .tcx files, it's on my big long list of shit to do...)

It's a 910xt - unfortunately it's getting on to the watch itself is the bit that I can't do. I appreciate the offer though.

Just under 8k run to work, just under 5 min/km steady pace. *turns to camera* Nice.

pm sent

6 x 800 session at the track last night. It should have been 8 x 800 but I missed the first two after leaving work late, then doing an urban TT from London Bridge to Parliament Hill. I managed to knock them out at between 2.50 to 2.58 each rep. I have gone backwards since October, but I suppose that is inevitable if you don't train.

Finally uploaded. Using Garmin Training Centre this time. Sheesh.

Anyway - how much faster is everyone on the track compared with the road? I was running 1km intervals yesterday, and was a good 10s / km off my pace on the track.

@Arducius

No knee pain?

No knee pain?

No knee pain. I still get occasional tightness down the outside of my knee when I'm running which serves as a reminder to concentrate on my form/stride. Oddly I still get niggling pains when I'm not doing any exercise but as soon as I run/cycle/swim they go away*.

I've been discharged form the physio, with some conditioning exercises to use as training, and he told me to let him know if I get the pain again, and my marathon time!

His parting advice was you don't need to be able to run 26 miles in training, you just need to get fit. I guess I'll see how that goes.

I'll probably end up runing home (the direct route) to take the daily total up to 10k. Skiing next week but the week after that I'll start throwing speed and tempo sessions into my runs to mix it up a bit.

*No, I'm not doing a tri... yet.

so turns out I signed up for the Brighton Half Marathon last april and forgot about it. Only found out when my race number arrived in the post on monday.

race calendar until may is now

Feb 1 - Winter 10km
feb 22 - Brighton Half
Mar 8 - Paris Half
Mar 29 - Berlin Half
Apr 12 - Paris Full
Apr 26 - London Full
May 24 - Copenhagen Full

Just hit 200km for Jan and looking at a >300km month in Feb (came 428th overall last year in feb in strava mts)

Feels good to be back in the full swing of training 6 days a week though, am remembering how hard it really was last year going through the same thing but it'll be worth it hopefully.

Nice programme that. Good luck on Sunday.

Jan total still 15km. Still got fractured foot. Moving to Parly Hill on Fri and won't even be able to do my local race next month (CC Nationals on the doorstep!)

Will continue coming here to flaunt self-pity.

Wish my club would enter national xc, might volunteer to sort entry for future seasons. I raced Mids & North but never Parly Hill.

I've hit the dizzy heights of 90 miles for the month due to upping run commute and occasional bad planning. Might finish the century by weekend, might not.

While we're (kinda) on the subject of Parly Hill, anyone have any experience of Saucony spikes? Sportshoes.com have a few pairs for £20 and I currently have three well fitting pairs of Sauconys so it seems a logical riskfree answer. Do spikes generally (and specifically Saucs) come up the same size as road/trail shoes?

My spikes were a faff to size up both times, worth trying on if you can. Current ones are 1/2 size bigger than road shoe. Edit: not saucony tho either time so sizing might be more consistent.

I've bought spikes online, and they've been fine - I've always bought Asics and got the same size as my other Asics shoes, encountered no differences.

Foot still busted.

@kl are you taking supplements to help the stress fracture heal? Calcium and vitamin D are what you need for building bones. You can get both in one supplement. Might help it heal a bit quicker, but won't fix it overnight.