Burpees and a bruised heel

So you may or may not have read the blogpost on Global therapies about the Bamford Carnival race where I came 26th, all rather exciting- but I was getting pretty severe pain under my right heel on the final descent. Having looked at the state of the ground when we got there, I realised immediately that I had the wrong choice of shoe. Not that I had a choice, my 268s had died on my on the 15 trigs, so all I left was a pair of baregrips.

Running downhill in barefoot shoes on hard hard ground, especially ones with massive lugs on them meant that the grips were being forced into my heel. It felt like a big blister was forming, and by the end it was really hurting. It looked like a blister was forming, but it wasn't, it then looked like a blood blister, but it wasn't. In the end, it was quite an impressive bruise. Right on the base of the heel. Ouch.

The bruise

Had I had a pair of shoes with a little less aggresive grip on the bottom, that might not have happened, and if I had the 268s, I certainly would have been wearing them for the race. Oh well. I can still walk on it, but running is certainly out for the moment. I was meant to be taking part in the trigs to track 1 mile downhill time trial today, and maybe even Holme moss tomorrow- a 17 miler, which sounds really good fun, however, I still don't have any other shoes apart from the Baregrips, and either of those races, although they sound amusing, will hurt a lot- and not in a good way.
So running is not going ahead at the moment, looking at the long term. Having said that, I think it will have gone down sufficiently and the new shoes will have arrived in time for Shining moss on Wednesday... so I suppose that I should really say, its a brief hiatus to manage injury and make sure I don't turn it into a long term niggling overuse injury.

Having said all that I had quite a good hard session yesterday- Prison burpees. 20 through to 1 with a 20-30 second rest between each set. By 17 it was getting hard, and the final few were quite fun, but it was all done in 20mins and 10 seconds.
Considering that I have had adductor issues in the past, and I wasn't sure if it was from the burpees, I made sure that I warmed down suitably. Today I don't seem to be feeling any bad effects, so thats all a good thing.
So its a day of watching the Tour de France.

Quick workout

I sat down yesterday and worked out the next months worth of workouts. I'm trying to keep things sane so that i still have enough left in my legs for the racing. I'm not specifically going for Power, Strength, Power Endurance or Endurance, I'm mixing it up a little, perhaps not actually putting enough Strength work in, but at this time, I think that PE is a little more important, and once the racing season has passed us by, I will start looking at that in a little more detail.

So after a couple of days rest from the epic 15 trigs, I feel pretty much fine. I need to keep foam rollering my legs to keep them ok, I fear the ITB might end up tightening up something chronic, should I neglect it, but as long as I keep it real and remember to keep doing recovery practices, it will all be fine.

So today was a Burpee Breathing ladder. Last time I did this I managed to get to 12 before blowing up and having to go back down, so 15 was the target today - being timed as well, not so that I can try it again some time and beat it- but for reference.
The problem with going faster and faster is that you start losing form- the issue is 2 fold- not doing complete reps and timing it gives a false time that you can beat by slacking on form- which is most definitely not the point- also, bad form is the easiest way to pick up a niggle which can turn into an injury. Not a great idea. Training is there to supplement your sport, not to replace it, nor to overshadow it, and getting injured while training is stupid and careless.
In the midst of a race... now thats a different matter altogether.

So I did a 1-15-1 burpee breathing ladder in 23:15. 225 burpees, and really started feeling it at about 11 on the way back down. All good fun though.
Finished off with 15 reps of DL and 2x10 front squats with the Slosh Pipe.

Short run with the Harriers this evening, should be amusing, and I'll certainly be taking it easy.