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Trials Since UTA

Date:
By JP

UTA was a massive journey both physically and mentally and now that I had achieved the goal of completing it, it was time to focus on a new goal - getting moving again!

 

Honestly, I was pretty banged up after UTA and after a couple weeks of walking I started running again only to discover a cranky ITB.  It was only early days but I couldn't get past 6km without it starting to hurt so I had it looked into straight away.  Much to my surprise I learned the outside of my quads were super tight.  I was told this is because I wasn't rolling them out.  Now, I was under the impression you shouldn't roll along your ITB as this was pointless, however, I didn't know that rolling out the side of your quad in a trigger point fashion is almost the only way to release the muscle.  In either case I was willing to try anything to avoid a major ITB issue.

 

Like a miracle, within one week of rolling out my outer quads the ITB issue completely cleared up and was able to run freely again.  The first few times totally made we want to cry but after several weeks I can roll them out without a flinch.  I was finally feeling great again before tragedy struck.

 

I was out on a normal Friday night run with the Possums when I kicked a tiny tree stump and hyper extended my big toe and second toe.  It hurt like hell and it took me down hard!  It was another 4km to the finish which I ran OK but the next day my toes were so damn sore.  I was pretty sure they weren't broken but it was off to the physio just to be sure.  It was also at this time I was starting reformer pilates so I had my physio there take a look.  She said my toes aren't broken but you've really bashed them so take it easy until they heal.  Not what I wanted to hear but I took a week off to see how it would go.  The next week I went for a little run and damn they were still sore.  The slightest knock underneath sent a shot of pain up my foot.

 

All in all it took several weeks to be able to tolerate a decent run without too much pain.  It was now July and things were finally starting to feel good again and I got struck down with man flu!!  Thankfully that only lasted a week but then it was off to Malaysia to visit family for a week.  I had an awesome week but the last day I was struck down again with some stomach thing so it was more days off running!  We are now in August and I'm finally getting up some reasonable distances.  Hopefully it will be enough to get through GNW 100K!