It's been a different kind of winter with a lot of
alternative training and compromises.
Ever since the middle of November I've
been struggling with a foot injury that has lately transformed from weird
metatarsal pain to more conventional plantar fasciitis (don't really know
whether to be relieved or not). First I thought it was good that the initial
pain was more or less gone and the pain had proceeded towards the heel but
nonetheless situation remains pretty much the same. I've still got pain when I run
and it gets even worse afterwards. But hey I just read that most people recover
completely within a year so I've got no worries! (what?!? a whole year?!?) I
also found out that it is often associated with high BMI (I should really get
worried!).
So I've spent much more time in saddle, gym and
pool than running and gradually I'm getting a bit bored to it. I was happy to
be able to run the first World Cup round in New Zealand but in reality my foot
was not yet fully recovered and running there didn't help much the process. On
the other hand the whole trip was amazing and gave me a huge mental boost that I
really needed.
When back in England I thought I could do some proper
training again by cycling but then we got lots of snow and for a week or so cycling
outside was not an option. I tried running in snow, which was much better than
running on hard surface, but it was not painless. When the snow was finally
gone and I was excited to get back in the saddle the first thing that happened
was that my bike got punctured. I know it happens quite often but at that
moment it just felt a bit unfair after all misery. The day after I got the tire
changed and was just getting ready for a new ride when stomach flu hit me and
put me to bed. I'm not complaining, it just hasn't been any dancing on roses
lately.
Anyway, it's looking slightly better now (knock knock) and I
really hope I will be able to run again in a few weeks time when heading off to
Portugal for a training camp. Plan was to run both POM and MOC but we'll see
how it goes. Adios!
