Down But Not Out

Nant Ffrancon To Glyder Fawr.

Well it's the scenario that I'd been dreading but half  expecting really. With my training going exceptionally well over the past couple of months, being the pessimist that I am, I was waiting for something to spoil everything. That happened this week. After my long run of the previous week of 24 miles, I felt a little tight, not painfully so but enough to get me to think about injury. Over the following couple of days, I noticed that I was experiencing pain not dissimilar to that I had previously experienced as a result of a stress fracture. As frequent readers will no, I have had two previous stress fractures and been out for over 16 weeks on both. This time around I decided to get off the road and into the gym, in an attempt to maintain my level of fitness and hopefully allow me to still do the 50 k race in May. Andy (Walling) called me in to see him at Caban, and he was joined there by Zac Laraman, friend and expert in various skeletal injuries. Over the next hour and a half they investigated the niggle and diagnosed a pre-cursor to a stress fracture. However, all is not lost. Both Andy and Zac felt that we had caught it in plenty of time and that a lay off the roads for a couple of weeks would hopefully allow my body time to heal itself and allow the resumption of my training for the trail race. So with that in mind, this morning (Sunday) saw me spend over two and a half hours in the gym on the cross trainer. Having said that I managed to kill two birds with one stone and I used the time to read up on my human body and bio mechanic notes.....interesting! So guys, let's be positive, I am going to remain focused on the trail race and allow myself at least the next fortnight getting right for the resuming my training.