Recovery and change...

I've been feeling better towards the end of this week.  It's amazing.  They say three to four weeks for marathon recovery and yep, that's about right.  All of a sudden I was really wanting to run again and really looking forward to it.  Hip felt better and legs felt looser. 

AND I had a trail run planned.  Yippee!  It's been since the summer since I've been on a technical trail and I couldn't wait!  there was a wind event expected for saturday morning and it was a little crazy feeling going on one of the floating bridges over to Cougar Mountain.  As expected, it wasn't as windy once on cougar except at the top of the hills.  I've run in windier conditions but there was still some branches down and a fairly large tree to scramble over. 

Still it was doing a mix of ice pellets and snow and rain and I knew since this was my first trail run in forever that I'd better keep it to the shorter distance which was a 5 mile loop.  I started off and immediately felt so clunky.  Well, whatever.  it's an uphill start from Red Town Trailhead over rocky access road.  It leveled out and I still felt a bit clunky but maybe it's just taking a while to warm up.  At 1.5 mile begins the climb up Shy Bear Trail and I was feeling nicely strong powering up the hill with better form. 

And then I realized my trail shoes were driving me crazy!  They felt hugely big and my feet felt like they were landing oddly.  I stopped to tighten my shoes and that felt a bit better.  Soon after, hip started to bother me and my foot where I was getting lace bite.  Oh I was annoyed!  Well no reason to go back as I was halfway through the loop and there was no shortcut back.  Just continue on and enjoy the scenery.  It was surprisingly dry on the trails considering how much rain we've had.  But you could tell there was a lot of rain as all the streams and creeks were running much higher and louder than I've ever heard.  It was really peaceful out there and I did enjoy that. 

I hit Sky country Trailhead and then headed down Clay Pit Road to Military Trail.  The road is where I knew that the shoes were completely wrong for me.  I felt like I was landing on the outside of my feet and that the too much support was kicking my feet out strangely on the extension.  That clunky feeling was still very much there, feet and hip were killing me.  GAH! 

I'd struggled with these shoes a bit (see post here, scroll down) and hadn't planned on re-buying them but I didn't think they were that bad.  Now?  Wow.  Coach Lesley said my mechanics have changed.  Interesting that what was feeling just fine some months ago feels so completely wrong now. 

So?  Of course I had to go buy some new trail shoes.  Inov8 268.  Again they are slightly too wide for me in the forefoot but have a better capacity to tighten.  They are very, very comfy and fit like a glove and aren't as stiff as other trail shoes.  it's nice to see they are getting away from the brick clunkers they used to have.  I can't wait to try them and with some extra days off with the holiday, I plan on doing just that.  Orcas island 25k is right around the corner!