What's it been, all of three or four days since I've determined that I can't run...well it's been over a month that I've known I should have been dealing with this, but three days since I've actually decided to do something about it!
Anyways, today I was the 'Event Host' (kinda like Race Director but pretty low key and you get to actually participate in your own event), for the Club Fat Ass Squamish Scrambler. The Scrambler is an out and back snowshoe event that I have been hosting for four years now. The route goes up past Red Heather and out to the Elfin Lakes back country hut in Garibaldi Park. This ends up being a return distance of 22km, which is a big day for snowshoeing since it's so much more of a workout than running without two pounds on your feet tends to be!
I have detailed that I can't really run right now, and I definitely can not snowshoe run as this seems to put an even greater strain onto my calves and plantar faschia muscles. What I am able to continue doing pain free though is ski tour, nordic ski, spin, bike, and water run. I haven't 'sunk' to the depths of water running just yet! With ski touring I have a fully ridgid boot under my foot and have been putting my heel lifts higher than normal to shorten my foot drop. This seems to be working well and has allowed me to at least continue doing one of the things I love. I did kinda stand out today however, as I lead 17 snowshoer's while on my ski touring gear! Sorry guys, I really did want to run it with ya!
The worst part about it all is that I did 22km of ski touring today and didn't even get any proper powder turns for myself, and the snow was great! I thought it would seem like I was ducking out on the snowshoeing for my skis if that were the case, so I decided out of fairness that I would stick as close as possible to the actual packed down snowshoe route. It was a great day out though and I enjoyed getting some people on snowshoes for the very first time, and showing even more people our incredible terrain here in Squamish! It's too bad the weather didn't hold for us as it looked promising to begin with but we ascended into the clouds and ended up in a wintery wonderland with snow flying by the end of it. Most people ended up questioning if my previous scenery pics from up there were legit or not!
I've been regularly torturing myself with a stick, a piece of foam, and a yoga mat, and am happy to say that it all seems to be helping immensely. I believe I could run tomorrow, but don't want to take any chances just yet and will continue to steer clear of the impact of running for the remainder of the week. Thankfully it's finally been raining in town (3000 feet lower than the Elfin Lakes trail head) and it looks like I might be able to hop back on the mtn bike right away, maybe even tonight if I could stop delaying and shut my damn computer off...
Anyone else having issues with the spell check on their blog lately? Not my fault folks, I have A.D.D. and was barely able to sit still while in school, speel chec was desined for peeple likk mi two fehl smrt agan!!
GR