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Final Taper Week

It’s tough to complain about tapering when that was my sunset last night and this is my view right now…

We’re out of town this week, enjoying a little R&R with the family. The weather’s been beautiful and the trip has been super relaxing, with days consumed by reading, swimming, ping pong matches, eating and resting by the pool, but yet, I’ve still got a little bit of taper madness going on.

Of course that’s partly due to the extra energy I have boiling inside me but I’m also struggling with something going on in my ankle/shin. It started two Sundays ago after finishing up what was supposed to be my first week of taper but was really more like my last week of training (I ended up with 62 miles that week, including 17 on the marathon course on Saturday and 8.5 miles in Sullivan Canyon/Ridge on Sunday). That afternoon, my calves were pretty tight and by the evening, I’d developed a nice, sharp pain on the inside of my right shin.

A little online research indicated that it was either a stress fracture or something going on with my posterior tibial tendon (the tendon that attaches the calf muscles to the bottom of the foot and supports the arch).

My pain is pretty much exactly between where the “Tibia” and “Posterior tibial tendon” arrows are pointing.  Thankfully, after a visit to the chiropractor, I was able to rule out a stress fracture (for now at least). Since the pain started, I’ve backed way off, running 30 miles last week and shooting for around 20 this week leading up to the race.  That’s how I ought to be tapering anyway!

The encouraging thing is that I’ve been able to do my taper runs without much pain and without the pain getting worse, the discouraging thing is that my ankle is pretty tight all the time, I still have some pain along the side of my shin, and it’s not really getting any better. For now, though, I’m just concentrating on keeping myself sane through the rest of this week and then I’ll just suck it up for 3-or-however-many-hours the marathon takes next Sunday!

As I mentioned, I’ve eased up on the running, I’ve also been stretching and icing and using Traumeel.  I’ll tape my lower leg with a KT Tape for the race. If anyone has any other smart ideas about how I can help ease this pain between now and Sunday or for raceday, I’m all ears!

And one more reminder about the my fundraising efforts for The Pablove Foundation marathon team. The marathon team has already raised over $106,000!  I’m a little late to the game getting started with my fundraising, but am hoping to help contribute.

If you are interested in donating to Pablove on my behalf for the marathon, here’s a link to my personal fundraising page.