Emily, hope you feel better soon. Both my Achilles are a chronic trouble spot for me, and there are many things I do that help, but I've got to say, the single thing that made the biggest instant difference was switching to zero-drop shoes. I wasn't even really looking for zero-drop at the time, it's just that the only shoes actually shaped like feet are also zero-drop, and I'd had so many problems with pointy toed shoes that I switched to the foot shaped ones almost as soon as they became available, and it was a big surprise how quickly my Achilles responded. General rule, calf muscles can't function in balance if my feet are hitting the ground collapsed or crossed-up. But yeah, TMTS can be so tempting and so damaging ... heal up quick.

RnR, that race sounds like a literal bear! Have fun with your training - sounds like you're all set for the winter, between liking the cold, and having nearby trails! I'm always freezing, myself, between my Raynaud's and my asthma I really can't train below 25°F, but even more than stuff that could actually hurt me, it's just the motivation to pull freezing cold skimpy running clothes out of the drawer and strip off my usual three layers of wool and stiffen up like a board just getting ready to run when it's even in the low 50s outside, perfect weather once I get moving, but hard to get ready for when I've been shivering in the house with blue toes up until then. Bleh.


So, me ... sigh. I posted a little in Thread Drift also. The long version is, back in the summer when I decided I wasn't going to run a fall marathon, somehow my subconscious took that as permission to partay and not even really train for the HM I did plan to run. As soon as I was ready to start hitting it hard again in September, I caught a bad cold and sinus infection that took a big bite out of my fitness and training time. Then this Monday I came home with the beginnings of yet another cold, not a bad one this time, but enough to make me wary of racing considering it came right on top of the last one and my immune system obviously hadn't recovered yet.

As late as Thursday evening I was seriously considering just blowing off this morning's race, especially with cold in the forecast (a full 20° colder than anything I'd run in yet this year). But I started to feel well enough that I decided I'd paid my money, I may as well show up and just have a fun run with 19,000 of the best people in Ohio, but that I'd take it easy and not take any risks of illness or injury. So, I piled all my warm clothes together and got ready for a 4:15 a.m. reveille.

I took a gel about 20 minutes before the start, as I often do, but for some reason it just didn't sit right. Rather than run through the nausea, since I'd decided to take it easy and wasn't chasing any particular goal, I stopped twice with dry heaves. The same thing when I started to feel incipient cramps in my feet and lower legs, I backed off just enough to keep the cramps at bay. And even though I ran more than two minutes slower than my PR, those three decisions probably cost me an age group placing - third place was less than a minute off my time (and a good four or five minutes slower than third place in this AG has been for the past few years). Aaaaugh.

Really though I'm okay with it. I was true to my plan not to hurt myself, to cross the finish line in good shape to kick off training for one more go at Boston. I couldn't have known that I'd have had a shot at an award with the time I was planning to run. Just a darn it, oh well, kind of thing.

Happy fall, everyone!