Foot Pain = Cuboid Subluxation

After the Suburban Rush race last weekend, I went home, had a good sleep, and was up early to participate in the largest Victoria running race of 2008; the Times Colonist 10km. While I was a little sore from the Rush, I was feeling like I could leave it out there and have a solid run. My 'goal' was a mid to low 36 minute time and even with the hard race the day previous, I still thought that I could perform.

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However, after getting out of the car and starting to walk to the start line, I realized that my foot was starting to hurt again. I say again because it was the same type of pain that I felt after my disaster at the Diez Vista 50km. It wasn't too bad at first but by the time we got close to the start, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to run. What started as a slight pain increased to the point that I could no longer walk properly. I turned around, limped back to the car, changed, and limped back - to the finish line this time - wondering what this would mean to my training and to my season as a whole. The only thing I could think of was that I had a micro fracture in my foot that had flared up again and would take many weeks to heel with no running. I was bummed.

On a positive note, the finish of the race was great! Man, the leaders came in so fast. Just over 30 minutes for the winner with a big pack all close up front. Super fast finish.

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I obviously had to have my foot checked out so I booked an appointment and saw my physio today. Is it fractured? How long will it take to heal?

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After many questions and doing a few tests, she figured out right away that my pain was caused by a subluxed bone in my foot (the cuboid). Apparently, the cuboid (which is cube-like in shape) is a common culprit that becomes shifted which makes proper movement impossible and results in pain. There is a tendon that runs down the side of the foot and then wraps under which stabalizes the foot and prevents rolling. The problem with the cuboid happens when the tendon is suddenly engaged (like slipping and tweeking the ankle quickly on a root like at Diez Vista) and causes the bone to shift. So, I've been walking around with a subluxed cuboid for the past three weeks; no wonder my foot was always sore.

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The solution; push the damn thing back in!

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After resettling the cuboid, my physio wrapped it with tape and advised me to keep taping it over the next week to prevent the problem from happening again.

My foot is already starting to feel better and in a few days, I should be back on my feet again. Barb is the best.

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TNO

Suburban Rush Race Report

This past weekend, Gary Robbins and I headed over to Port Moody to take on the Suburban Rush Adventure Race. Both of us will admit that we did not give this race much credit heading in. As the race is geared as a beginners event, we thought that it would be arrogant to go over and race this race hard to win. With Bryan Tasaka trying to persuade us otherwise and listing competitive teams that would be at the start line, we both reluctantly agreed to race. Man, were we wrong about this event!

The Suburban Rush is a 30km event which consists of running and mountain biking on a primarily flagged course although some navigating is required in sections. The race is in its 4th season and is put on by Dean Wutke and Shawn Leclair.

While this event is geared toward beginners, the course had us climbing some serious elevation and riding some very technical mountain biking trails. Both Gary and I were very impressed. The course started with a short flat run by the water before heading straight up a trail to a bike transition area. From here of course, we continued to climb. We connected onto some rough hydro line trails which we both recognized as part of the Diez Vista 50km course that we had run just a few weeks prior. The course was definitely designed to build up as much lactic acid as possible at the start and then punish you in the end!

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Once we hit the top of the climb there was a rough downhill road section before heading into some great downhill singletrack. As much as I tried to keep my speed here, I was just getting bucked around on my hardtail and was fighting just to make sure that I didn't bail. I just couldn't keep up to Gary although I later found that he was seriously surprised at how well I handled the trail considering my current ride.

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I've never owned a full suspension and have been happily riding a ti hardtail for quite some time now; but after riding that section of trail, it finally instilled in me that it was time to move onto a dually. With Test of Metal and BC Bike race around the corner, I just cannot afford to get beat up on a hardtail and slow down the team. A new ride is in the works :)

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We had led the race through the running section but was passed by Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island on the bikes due to a much needed piece of missing flagging. It appeared that someone had 'sabbotaged the course' and we ended up losing our hard fought time gain on the run in an instant. We followed on the bikes and hit up the transition area to a fun navigation section beside Bunsen Lake just behind the leaders.

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Once we figured out that the controls were placed just off the trail, we went out and cleaned up the rest of the controls with little issues and came back to our bikes in first place. We knew from here that we just needed to keep a good pace and without any bike issues, we should be able to get to the line first.

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I was having some cramping issues due to the all the lactic acid built up from the start of the race and really just wanted some nice swoopy trails. After a short climb up from the lake, some good trails are exactly what we got! Nice flowy trails with good downhill speed and a fair share of short climbs.

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In the end, we pushed for the line and took home our first adventure racing victory of 2008! It was a great feeling to race again and especially to race on a team with Gary. With the MOMAR Squamish just in two weeks, it was a good measure to make sure we are good to go. Now, hopefully Gary can at least walk after the Miwok 100km!!!

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Thanks to everyone at Suburban Rush for putting on a great event that ran smooth and for holding the race on such a nice weekend!

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If you missed the Suburban Rush this year, I would highly recommend that you give this race some serious consideration in 2009.

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Thanks also to Bryan Tasaka for helping Gary and I get to the starting line and for giving me a ride back to the ferry terminal!

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TNO

Determinator #2 - Beaver Lake Park

The Victoria Orienteering Club is putting on the 'Determinator Series', a fun Wednesday evening series for all levels of abilities.
See the Website for more details.
Hope to see you there!

Determinator 2- Beaver Lake Park

DATE: Wednesday 23 April, 2008

WHAT: Determinator Series - Determinator #2
Five weekly training sessions disguised as fun competitive events

WHERE: Beaver Lake Park - Paved main parking lot near the beach.

WHEN: Wednesday, 23 April, and the following three Wednesdays
6:00 P.M. Registration for newcomers needing a bit of instruction
6:30 - 6:45 P.M. Registration for regular Determinators
7:00 Mass Start

COST: $7 each week
plus $5 all-year-Membership for newcomers
(Club Season Passes and First-Meet-Free-Memberships not applicable)

DETAILS: Goat Format, same as last year.
Mass Start, skip one control (you choose which one)

At least two cash prizes each week, and many, many prizes at the Final Race, May 10th.

After their first race, everyone receives a handicap for their subsequent races; giving everyone an equal chance at winning.

Snow, Cold, Windy & Warm

After the prevous weekend of steller weather, I awoke early on Saturday morning to get in some miles on the legs. I geared up and by 6:30pm I opened the front door to be confronted with falling snow. Here it is mid April, on a weekend that not one week earlier topped 19 degrees, and it was starting to drop minus degrees on me.

I literally stood outside in an early morning haze trying to take in all in and decide what to do. I think I stood there for a least a few minutes despite the very cold air. I stepped back inside. What to do. Had I been still undressed, I think I would have crawled right back in bed. But here I was, all ready to go and the thought of backing out was just not strong enough. I think I knew that I was not going to be able to talk myself out of it but I still stood inside for a good five minutes before I was out the door again... this time to actually leave.

As I went, the snow continued and at times I had to stare my gaze downward as to not get hit in the eyes with the large flakes that were blowing down. I ran my normal flat run into the Colquitz River system and the trees overhead were a nice canopy to shelter me from the wind and blowing snow. Eventually I made my way out to the the Galloping Goose trail and headed over into Thetis Lake Park to meet up with the Harriers. It was a good 15km steady run and I arrived with enough time to fuel up and get my breathing down but not enough to get cold from not moving.

We had a good group run with Shane and Garth and I leading the way through some good rugged trails that Thetis has to offer.

Arriving back at the parking lot, the snow had somewhat subsided but this was just a teasing for what was to come. After a social breakfast, the snow really started to come down and soon, it was a winter wonderland out in Langford. Inches of snow had accummulated and it brought the highway speedlimit from 90 km/h down to about 50. Thanks to Lara for giving me a ride home!

The rest of the day was spent learning how to use an electronic punching system called Sport Ident or SI. This system is used in orienteering events and some adventure races and allows the organization to provide competitors with split times at multiple points along your route which is great for comparing results with other competitors. I'll be using this at the Camp Thunderbird Score-O event and needed to get a handle on how it all works. Leigh Bailey was nice enough to help me out and even had me over for supper which was very nice.

On Sunday, I managed to get in a good 2 1/2 ride with the Wheelers road bike ride and then spent some time with Kim on a nice but easy stroll through many parks around the area. In the end, we hiked around 12 km and saw lots of wildlife enjoying the sunny day that followed the cold (yes, it was now nice and all the snow was gone). There were many birds out including a large Pilated Woodpecker and a little hummingbird that treated both of us with a view of its nest!

Their nests are so small and so camalflaged that it is a pretty rare sight to actually see one. It sat in the nest and was extremely still as to not be seen.

After the hike, I got on the road bike again and did some hill repeats to work on my climbing.

Despite the snow, all in all it turned out to be a good weekend.

TNO

Sweet Weekend

What an amazing past weekend! With the weather being in the blah zone for the past month, the weekend, and in particular Saturday, was forecasted to be nice and hot at 19 degrees; it did not disappoint!

After Diez Vista, I wasn't feeling particularly destroyed (didn't have the Robbins shuffle) but due to my ankle, I wanted to make sure that everything was fine before I started running again. It took a few days before it was 100% again (which was weird since it went from absolute pain to being fine in a few days!) but my energy levels were definitely at a low. I spent the week eating like I'd been fasting for weeks and even if I was full, my body still felt like it wanted more. It's been a long time since I've felt like this and is probably attributed to going so far in the hole at Diez Vista; I depleted myself and was slowly replenishing my energy stores.

So, after a week of primarily biking to work and a group road ride with the Russ Hays group, I was looking forward to some good but not too intense weekend training.

I did my usual Saturday monring trail run with the Harriers at Thetis Lake and then after a good hearty breakfast, I was fuelled up for some long hours in the bush.

I headed out to Camp Thunderbird in Sooke to field check some locations for the following event that I'm doing the course for:

Event: Camp Thunderbird 3 Hour Score-O
Location: Camp Thunderbird, Sooke
Description: Collect as many controls as possible in a three hour time period
Info: Victoria Orienteering Club


One of the many Control Locations

Flowing Skunk Cabbage on the edge of Glinz Lake

This event is just one week before the Squamish MOMAR and is a must for tuning up your navigation or for just getting out of the City and into some gorgeous west coast terrain with some great views out across the Juan de Fuca Straight and to the Olympic Pennisula Mountains.

If you can make it to this Control Location, you'll get a sweet view!

After spending a good five hours in the bush and slicing open one of my fingers on a rock (don't worry, it's all bandaged up!), I packed it in and started to head home. Ok, I say five hours but a good 1/2 hour of that was spent lying on a rock outcrop in the sun with my shirt peeled off. Yeah! It felt sooooo gooood! Seems like a long time since last summer.

I was feeling pretty beat but suddenly decided to go up humpback road and check out Mount MacDonald. This peak is located just by Goldstream Provincial Park and right across from Mount Wells. I've been up Wells several times but had yet to go up MacDonald so... might as well be now then never. I had a great fast power hike up and up and up to the peak.

A large patch of Shooting Stars on the way to the Summit

The trail is nice and rugged but is mostly unrunable due to the steepness going up. The view from the top was definitely worthwhile as I had a great view from up to the highlands, to Victoria, to the south over the Juan De Fuca straight, and even out to the mountains in Sooke where I just was. I hiked and ran back down and then called it a day.

My Reward

Sunday I awoke again to some great weather. I geared up on the road bike and had a solid 2 1/2 hour road ride with the wheelers group. What started off as a decent pace and a large group soon turned into a faster and smaller and faster and smaller group. Eventually, we went down to just five of us and by the time we rode by my place, my legs were totally done.

I quickly refuelled and headed out again to Royal Road University for a middle distance orienteering event. This was a good event that had some good bushwacking, some mud, and some good open and fast trail running. Just under an hour of running and I was again done for the day.

I spent the rest of the day in a sleepy daze wishing to sleep but having to pack and make the ferry over to Vancouver to spend the next three days at a quality managment training workshop. With the ferry full, I cursed, fell asleep in the backseat of my car, and eventually made it over to my hotel by midnight! Arhh.

It was a good weekend! Ok, other than the ferry... :)

TNO

Diez Vista 50km Race Report

I never was really looking forward to this race. I couldn't figure out why but for some reason, I was not feeling good about going into the race. Was it a lack of motivation. No. Was it my current training schedule and how I had been set back a bit over the past week. Maybe a bit but I still was able to get out on three solid runs on Monday through Thursday and felt really good on my feet. So, what was it about this race.

I arrived at my friend Magnus's place in North Vancouver on Friday night (a good orienteering friend who is integral in the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club). We had some good discussions about orienteering and event organization and then managed to pull out a North Van map and check out the area where the race was going to be held. I now realized what was bugging me so much about this race; I had virtually no idea of what the course was.

Going into Chuckanut, I had studied the course maps, knew many of the twist and turns, knew where the aid stations were to plan out my nutrition, and knew when and where to expect the climbs and decents. For the Diez Vista 50km... I knew that I was signed up for a hilly 50km trail run; that's about it. No maps for the course are provided by the race and I could find nothing by searching through Google. While some people tried to give me some concept of what to expect, including Gary Robbins (who ended up going out too hard and blowing up two years prior), it really didn't help to prepare me for the event. I was going in blind.

Gary picked me up in the early morning and we headed out to Port Moody and more specifically, Lake Sassamat where the race start and finish was located. I say early because the start was at 7:30am which for a 50km race, seemed way too early for the both of us. Everything went fine on arrival and before we knew it, the race was on.

I was feeling really good but tried not to push it too hard, especially on the uphills. Gary and I were running around the same pace but once we hit the switchbacks up on the Diez Vista trail, he took off with his great power hiking.

The Diez Vista trail was absolutely awesome! Extremely rugged, lots of open rock, swishy organic soil, and more roots than you'd want at times. I was loving this section! Maybe I was pushing it a bit too hard this early in the the race but man did these trails feel good. I was eating it up. After passing several people, I lost my concentration for a split second, slid down a root, tweaked my ankle and slammed my right quad into a rock. I got up quickly, and kept running hoping that my quad would hold up fine. I thought that my ankle was fine...

The course unfolded with lots of hills and decents, lots of good single track, but a bit too much power line access road running for me. These roads were typcial for the area; rocky with lots of cobbles, and always going either up or down. I thought I was getting somewhat close to end of the race but really had no idea of how far I had ran. I had been hanging in 10th place for quite some time and maybe pushed myself a little too hard to stay in this spot. My legs started to slow. The flats (when there were any) were fine, and the slight downhills were good as well but the anything else, and my quads and hamstrings started to complain. I was well hydrated, kept up my calorie intake with some Carbo-Pro, and had a steady supply of electrolytes coming in via my Thermolyte tablets.

When I started up the last big switchback section of the course (as I found out later), my body reduced me to a crawl. Even when it nearly flattened out, I physically could not run any grade at all. This trail led out to yet another power line section that was again either a climb or descent. At this point, I knew that all I could do was to power hike up the hills, and run the downhills. Trying just to hold on to my race, I saw a runner coming toward me and I now remembered something about a powerline out-and-back and something about a long downhill followed by a long reverse uphill. Then came Gary! With a big peace sign signifying that he was in 2nd place, Gary looked strong and had a big smile on his face! I knew that he was in good shape and being not too far behind the leader, I knew that he had a chance at taking 1st!

I continued to struggle on the road and suddenly my quads completely gave up on me. I could no longer run downhill. With my legs trashed, and knowing that I had a ways to go on the course including a long downhill to the finish, I had no choice but to walk. My mind was all go but my body was at the end. I had pushed too hard, cracked, and my only option to finish was to suffer for the next two hours and walk the rest of the course in pain. While there might be some kind of macho, have to finish mentality to walking in and finishing, I just could not do it. If I couldn't run, my race was over. My race was over.

I walked down the final hill into the aid station and I think all of the volunteers knew what was coming.

"I'm done", I said.
"Are you sure you don't want to sit down for a bit, relax and maybe go out again?", said one of the volunteers.
"No, there's just no way. I cannot run anymore."

At this point, they could tell that physically I couldn't go on and then helped me out by wrapping me in blankets as the rain and snow that we faced on the course had soaked me and as I was not exerting myself any longer, I was starting to shiver.

It didn't even bother me to watch as competitors would come and go out of the aid station as I knew that physically I was shot, could do nothing about it, and would use this as a good learning experience to draw upon in the future. This would be my first ever Did Not Finish (DNF). I will remember this one for a long time.

As I got extremely cold, one of the volunteers drove me back to the start line with some good heat blasting and I was fortunate enough to see the first racers finish. While Gary didn't come in first, he closed what was once a huge gap on 1st place and ecstatically came in 2nd place (just a couple of minutes behind the leader who broke the course record!). A very big congrats to Gary as he had probably his best running performance ever.

It was weird being on such a low while Gary was on such a high. It was hard to really congratulate him and at the same time, it was hard for Gary to feel for me. On top of this, my ankle that I had tweeked coming down the Diez Vista trail turned from fine, to sore, to swollen, to extremely painful. I knew that it was getting bad when I started to get the blood pumping feeling in my foot, but when I got out of the car in Port Moody to get some sushi with Gary, I could barely walk. I ended up getting a tensor bandage and my mood turned from being down, to being worried about my ankle and what it might mean for the weeks to come.

I was going to take the bus back to Tsawwassen to the ferry but with my ankle as bad as it was, this was going to be a nightmare as I had too bags full of gear and a heavy resupply of Carbo-Pro product. Luckily, Gary tracked down Carlos for me who was kind enough to not only give me a ride to the ferry terminal, but to drop me off right at home in Victoria! Thank you so much!

Writing this post the day after the race, I can luckily say that my ankle is much better. By doing a lot of elevating and icing, I can now put weight on it and it doesn't hurt at all when I'm just lying down. It seems like it was just one of those weird tweeks you get that hurt like crazy, but go away quickly. On any other day it might have been fine but when you run for another 25km on it after you tweek it, it wasn't very happy.

In hindsight, I learned a lot from this race which was my main goal although I obviously wasn't planning on DNF'ing. My main lesson was this:

I will NEVER EVER run an ultra EVER again that does not provide a course map! Running blind for that kind of distance is completely stupid if you actually want to race. I went in racing a similar race to Chuckanut but since this race is tougher (yes, I think it is quite a big more difficult), it was just too much for my pace, and cost me finishing the race. Lesson learned.

TNO