Reality Check
This week was a bit of a reality check.
Coming off the Oregon trip I was feeling really good and encouraged, and I think I went into this week with a bit too much enthusiasm. I did some solid training — a full gas Island Endurance session, 8x200m at Oak Bay, a couple of trail runs including a decent long run on Sunday at PKOLS. But I didn’t quite complete the week the way I’d hoped. The 200s got cut short because my left peroneal was talking to me. Sunday’s long run felt like I had to dial way back. And then over the weekend my heels got pretty puffy and uncomfortable for a day, which was a bit discouraging.
I think I know what happened. The stiff heel counter on my new Escalantes on Saturday added more load than I expected, even on a really short run. And a couple hours of yard work in my running shoes — just more time in shoes, more contact on the bursa — added to it. It wasn’t the running that tipped things. It was the stuff around the running.
Still, the puffiness was a reminder that the structural piece is still there. The Haglund’s isn’t going anywhere. The bursa is still reactive when things stack up. That’s just the reality of what I’m managing.
The Training
Monday — Easy 33 min run, Summit Park, stair strides. Legs still carrying Oregon fatigue.
Tuesday — Island Endurance, 1 min fast/1 min float/1 min easy x8. First time running full gas since switching to zero drop. Aerobically felt pretty easy. Legs felt heavy during the workout which tells me something.
Wednesday — Easy spin and short recovery run.
Thursday — 80 min trail run, 8 miles, 869ft. My biggest continuous road-style run since starting the rehab. Five weeks ago running 20 minutes felt weird. This week 80 minutes felt normal and natural. That’s real progress.
Friday — 8x200m at Oak Bay, cut short due to left peroneal. Fast laps down to 5:29 pace before pulling the pin. Younger version of me does not cut that workout.
Saturday — Short easy run in new Escalantes, stiff heel counter, hot, underfueled. 3/10.
Sunday — 90 min PKOLS. Had to dial it way back. Legs not recovered.
Sooke Hills
I’m not running Sooke Hills 50k this weekend. Not because I can’t — it’s more that I want to respect the process I’m in. I’m also just not that stoked on it. The trails don’t really call to me the way some other things do.
What does call to me is Knee Knacker on July 11th. That’s a trail I’ve always wanted to run in its entirety. That one means something.
Mt. Cokely This Saturday
Instead of Sooke Hills I’m going to give Mt. Cokely a go this Saturday as a check-in run. I did it last year with my friend Ruth, and more recently with Riki. I just want to see how it goes — how the heels feel on that specific terrain, how the new Escalantes perform, how the legs respond after a proper down week.
What The Real Goal Is
Something’s been becoming clearer to me through this process, especially walking alongside some of my runners in my coaching and seeing the same patterns from the outside.
The real goal isn’t the Fatdog 100k. Like, yes, I want to run it, and I want to run Knee Knacker. But the actual goal is being able to train how I want to, run how I want to, play around with the kids, do yard work, just live a healthy life — and not have my heels be super reactive to regular life. Not having to think about whether moving furniture or mowing the lawn is going to blow up my training week. That’s what I actually want.
Morning stiffness and pain: 1-10 scale. Running in Altra Escalante (zero drop) unless noted. I’m using Claude as a daily training and rehab log — tracking morning stiffness, pain levels, sessions, and patterns in real time. These blog posts are written with Claude’s help, pulling from that ongoing log each week.
