our choices show what we truly are

I used this race just to force my body to go running today. I woke up at 7:00am, I was ready by 7:45, I went to pick up a friend of mine and we drove for one hour to the archeological site of Vulci. This race had an advertised distance of 11.1k but considering that was in a archeological park with stairs, single track trails, roman-etruscan ancient roads, rocks and roots we seriously doubted that it was accurately measured. For some pictures go there and check the section in the middle saying "visualizza le foto del percorso"(it's not me in the pictures). Nobody knew the exact course because every year they keep changing it, but it was clear that there was a good amount of uphill and obstacles (natural and man made).

We started on time in a big meadow, my plan was to start slowly to try to find some energy and then trying to go progressively faster. We circled the meadow and then we entered the park on a wide trail that was a single track after 200m, then for the next 2k we had 4 sections of stairs going up then down and I was forced, as the rest of the group to just wait and walk them, we crossed a couple of narrow bridges, we ran along a river and after about 1k on a roman pavement we went back to the start. First loop of 4k was done (my Garmin was in agreement). At this point I was feeling good and decided I was going to push the second half, this second loop was more runnable, more stairs but just three or four of them at a time, more long uphills on roman pavement and one short steep down hill to finish with four stairs down, a bridge, four stairs up and then 100m before the finish line. My Garmin recorded 10.85k.

I was 6th in my age group and I won a kilo of cheese, just missed some salami awarded to the 5th!!!

Overall I was very happy, I didn't expect to go so fast, time doesn't say the whole story, I went faster than guys that a month ago were two minutes faster than me, several of them. I passed during the second loop many faster people and my final ranking would have been a great one if I was in good shape and well rested. At least my increased mileage shows is giving some results. Drove home, had a good sunday lunch and did some cleaning during the afternoon, I was tempted to go for a short cool down run but I decided against it.

Tomorrow I will go back to pile up some miles.

I was at home at 8:00pm, one hour run to relax a little bit.

My plan was to go for a 10 miler, but after 5k I was really tired, not sore, just simply tired, all I wanted it was to go to bed as soon as possible. I finished 10k and went home.

No running today, I had at lunch time my first session of shock waves to treat my calcanear spur/plantar fascitis, 2500 painful hits on each foot. I have to say I am lucky person,  because I have never experienced in my whole life a pain worse than what I experienced today. The whole thing lasted no longer than 5-7 minutes with a few stops because the technician also was experiencing part of the treatment. I tried to mentally work out my pain, but it was a pure torture. At the end my whole body was in full contraction due to the pain and I was covered with sweat. Each session (total number will be 10) should be a little bit less painful than the previous one, for sure it will increase my pain treshold. At the end my feet were completely pain free, I don't remember last time I had this feeling, walking without being aware that my feet were in pain. It is recommended not to run on it the same day, Iwill do something light in between treatments.

In spite of feeling great right now, I am not really looking forward to the next treatment on friday.

At least if this will resolve the pain it will be worth it.

5.5 easy miles, my feet this morning were much better, the treatment seems to work.

Today second treatment with shock waves for my spurs/fasciitis. This morning I could stand and walk right away, almost pain free, for sure better than during the last 6 months. I would be happy to maintain this improvement.

Today the improved pain/stiffness showed its results even during the therapy, it was much more bearable than last time, last time I was in pain throughout the treatment, today I went through easily and I even tried to relax my feet and legs during the 2500 hits.

The doctor told me to try to stop running (biking will be OK) until next friday, at that point I will be half way with the treatment and I can start running again. I hope to keep improving or at least maintining what I got so far. No running for the next 7 days. Promised.