Down in the Dumps

Tramore Valley 5k
"And We're Off"

Amidst a flurry of Movember moustached men (and some women), the inaugural Tramore Valley 5k in aid of Marymount Hospice was hosted in the former Cork landfill site or city dump, which will shortly be opened as Cork's new "super park". Despite a slight smell of methane from what I suspect are badly capped landfill cells (yes I am an nerdy environmentalist), nearly 300 people ran the 2-lap course on a fairly windy day.

The new park, once officially opened, should be a superb facility and will have a link by footbridge to Vernon Mount, so there are high hopes for it to be a decent running facility, especially if they put in some lights for night running. This is good news given that the long term future of UCC's Farm is in doubt (apparently).

This was the first 5k I had raced in over a year and it was always going to be a good test to see if the consistent training due to a lack of shin splints (more on that later, some bad news I'm afraid) was having the desired effect. The course itself was relatively flat, with a slight downhill at the start and a slight drag at the end, so all in all fairly even.

The road, however, was a different story. There was relatively new paving for the best part of 3k which still had a lot of loose chippings, not great for the Five Fingers, but manageable despite the odd stone jamming into my heel, and with only one tight turn near the start slowing down the pack, it was a relatively fast course. I ran 20.06, which is my fastest for a while, so things seem to be moving in the right direction for the most part.

Coming In To Finish (Red Long Sleeve T-Shirt)

For the other part, my legs, in an act of submission to my training demands, decided it was time to familiarise me with an old injury, the shin splints have returned to my left leg. I don't really think it has been anything to do with my barefoot approach to running, rather it has coincided with my return to the hockey pitch and my clod-hopping astroturf shoes.

So off I went to the physio and after an hour of varying degrees of pain, there was an improvement. Between the shins, having my it band and iliopsoas released (whatever that means) and dry needles stuck into my legs, I felt much better (thanks to Sinead Murphy). There is still some tenderness after I run in my left shin but Christmas will bring a break from playing hockey, so we'll see if my astroturf shoes are the cause of the pain or not.

Dry Needles - Great Craic

Apart from that, it's been a good month for training, running over 25 miles a week, including one long run per week and a speed endurance session.  I'm hoping December will get that number closer to thirty and the new year will bring even more miles (at least that's the plan for the resolutions!).

No movement on the old MDS waiting list, still stuck at 48 but not too worried about that for the moment.

Running 3 Miles in Another Man's Shoes...

Ignoring all the advice that many (but not all) physiotherapists have given me throughout the years, I decided to try non-orthotic barefoot running. The decision came out of frustration from the return of some slight pain in my shins after two weeks of increased running and I have been here, done that. I know the only way to get rid of it involves rest and icing my shins using a large block of ice from an old butter container that I keep in the freezer and then starting again before I get more pain somewhere down the road (literally). This has been the cycle since I was 18, when I'm convinced that a mixture of the Mardyke's concrete astroturf, new hockey shoes, then end of my growth spurt and Asics first ever Kayanos (which were very heavy) caused my splints. As I always say "you can manage them, but never get rid of them".

With this decision and knowing I have no intention of running down a road with nothing on my feet, it meant only one thing...Five Fingers. So in I went to John Buckley's and tried to try on a pair. I felt sorry for the sales guy as it took me nearly 25 minutes to get one on and I couldn't even get the other one on. I told him to go for his lunch and come back to me, but he declined! Eventually I got them on (after 50 minutes) and walked around a bit and jogged in the shop. I bought them and left expecting to be clamped with a parking fine.

It took me only 20 minutes to get them on when I got back to the office and I kept them on for the day. To say that they feel weird is an understatement, like gloves that pull your toes apart. The first thing I noticed is how they force you to walk on the balls of your feet, as opposed to on the heels and when I jogged around a little, it was the same thing. Bizarre to say the least.


So on to my first run - I thought better of running more than 3 miles, as the advice is to build up slowly, maybe a mile at a time. I drove to the pitch in Glanmire and off I went. The difference in running style was immediate - no cushioning means you can't land on the heels and have to run more upright with a straighter back and there was no weight in them at all. I still had some pain in my shins, but it was a different pain, almost the sort of pain you get from trying something new, and it was the same for my calves. No pain in the soles of my feet and I felt I was running reasonably efficiently. The only other issue was a slight chaffing at the back of the ankles, but it's not a worry, I'm sure my ankles will get used to it.

Whether this will be the same in the longer term remains to be seen and I'm not sure will these solve the splint issues, but at this stage I'll try anything.   

The last thing I need is to find a method of training with them - do you run in them all the time?; alternate them with my normal runner?; wear my orthotics in my normal shoes?; do core exercises to help my running style? I'm not finding much online but I'll keep searching.

Was going to add in a crap joke here about giving my old runners the finger (get it? rubbish I know), but I can't see myself running over rocky ground in the fingers, let alone the desert. Will do a trial run in Youghal over the next week or so. Daycent ba!