Blind Date With John Proc....Ugh!!

So a lot has happened this week.....or maybe not.  As you recall, I hurt my ankle after running two half marathons in 6 days.  I've always had ankle problems but its been a couple of years since its flared up but it dates back to about 15 years ago when I was playing Australian Rules Football and as I ran off the field, I stepped in a two foot hole twisting my ankle quite badly.  Ironically, this is the worst injury I had of playing 11 years of Aussies Rules.  Every once in a while, it would flare up and I couldn't walk for a week or so which is one of the reasons I hired a coach.

On Monday I ran 11 km at race pace to "test" the ankle out.  It held out fine with only a minor soreness so on Thursday, I talked to coach and we set out a game plan.  The plan is to run at a much slower pace than originally planned and use the 10 x 1s to minimize the pounding (the 10 x 1s is to run 10 minutes and walk 1 minute).  The worst case scenario is that if I ran and got a stress fracture, I would be out for about six weeks.  That would eliminate the Toronto Marathon in May but I could always run the Hamilton marathon in November.  I was more worried about wrecking my triathlon season so I went to see Kevin (chiropractor) and he confirmed I had no stress fracture and was ok to run.  Yea!

One of the other reasons I wanted to see Kevin was my right shoulder/back was killing me.  I don't know what I did but just sitting at my desk had it throbbing.  It turns out that all the extra hours of working/sitting at my desk, has caused my shoulder/back to tighten up.  Kevin did some painful ART and suggested a massage.  It felt better but no where near perfect.

This morning I went for a short 30 minute run which was a lot harder than I anticipated.  I actually struggled and my shoulder/back was killing me.  I'm not sure if I can run for 3 hours!!  Also my foot was a little sore as well.  I decided to go pick up my race kit in Hamilton today as I actually had some spare time.  I remembered that John Proc worked in Hamilton so I flipped him an email and after some going back and forth we worked out a plan to meet and pick up our race kits.

The drive to Hamilton was uneventful but once I got downtown, the one thing I hate about the city is all the (&#*$*&&#@ one way streets!!  I drove by Copps Colosseum several times trying to find a place to park.  The one lot I pulled into wanted a measly $10 to park.   Umm no thanks!!  I found a side street to park for free except in Hamilton it looks like they only clear one side of the sidewalks and walking around in dress shoes in the snow is always interesting.

Anyways, I met up with John Proc (christ, this guy's tall).  Its always good to meet other triathletes.  We chatted while waiting for the doors to open (thankfully we lined up inside) and picked up our race kits which is by far the crappiest race kit I've ever seen.  Basically it was the timing chip and a T-shirt and that was it!  We even had to bag them ourselves.  The race expo wasn't all that great either as the prices looked to be the same in the stores.  We did find a beautiful foam roller for John but true to his form, he wouldn't cough up $40 for it.  Actually that was very expensive and I don't blame him.  I told him I could get one for about half price from the Chiropractor College in Toronto but even that seemed to be out of his price range!! Cheap Cheap!!!

I had to boot back to Toronto as I had arranged for a massage for my back as sitting in the car for two hours didn't help it.  The massage was predictably painful but did help somewhat.

So I guess whether I do Around The Bay will turn out to be a game day decision on Sunday morning..............