Bit of a scare

I got new shoes on Saturday (that's not the scary bit), but I didn't wear them on Sunday's long outing. Hence, first wear was Tuesday morning (yep, no car again, so no water running. It appears that that particular plank in the don't-get-injured policy is out of the picture for now. Anyhow, I digress...).

I went to a different local oval and did 5 x 1k reps (actually 960m, but I won't tell if you don't). This oval has some raised section around it for the viewing public, so it added some nice little undulations into the picture. The biggest is a 2m rise in 2m travel, so it's a nice little punch when you're feeling tired. Anyhow, at the end of the last one, I realised that my old nemesis shin niggle was having a nice nibble at my leg. Not at all happy. Was it the new shoes, or the sharp rises at speed, or something else? Ice & massage & stretching when I got home (not in that order though).

I decided to test out the hypothesis that it was the shoes by wearing them again on Wednesday's long run, but keep the early stages of that run near home in case of blow-ups. Sure 'nuff, after about 4k, the dragons started nibbling again, so I headed home before too much damage was done. Ice, etc again.

Thinking about it, I realised that my old shoes were all worn on the outer edge of the heel, so my new ones were pushing my feet to a new angle, almost the same as if I'd put orthotics in. The different angle fitted with the position of the strain too. TA talked to Dr Pain at her appointment and he agreed that I just needed to settle in to them.

Consequently, I wore them to work on Thursday (and got a few comments - they're fairly bright for an office :-) ) and then on to Run Club in the evening. We did a 3k TT on a bathtub course - it's a 500m length with significant little rises at each end - and I was very pleased (and surprised) to do 11:27. However, when I got home and measured it on Google Earth, it's only about 2.8km, so that's still only a 4:oo pace. However, on the bright side, it is a 4:00 pace on hills, so that's got to count for something.

Anyhow, the really bright spot of the evening was that the dragons had gone back to sleep, so it looks like I'm getting used to the new platform OK. I'll wear them at the Striders 10k on Saturday, and then drop back to the old ones for the long run on Sunday. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye... (and best of everything to those going to the Port HIM this weekend - wish we were there).

Gnome