Another year passed and in spite of training a lot there was not many opportunities to race or have spectacular long runs. Both COVID and injuries are reasons for that. Since december last year I have had some injury every one to two months, in the lower back, a pulled muscle in my left calf, some weird pains in the right hip, and then a much more serious injury on the 16th of May, acute retrocalcaneal bursitis and issues with the aquilles tendon insertion on the right. Since I started training with Tecnirunner to learn to run injury free and with all this I accepted that maybe that was not really possible, and so I am back now to train myself. I am still far from healed but at least I can do some decent long runs without pain and with hopes to be able to run the 100k of the Salomon Ultra Pirineus in the beginning of October.
Next up impressions of the different hikes and training sesssions I have done recently.
My first serious training to test how the body responds to mountain trails always is the direct ascension of the Tibidabo. This was on the 5th of July, so after almost 2 months of no running. I did 2 test runs in the weeks before and a lote of hometrainer and hiit with weights at home. Though I never really mind my weight it is around 72kg now, and I literally feel "heavy"!
Near where I work in Bilbao there is some really nice mountains to go run to for training. Here the top of the Pagasarri on a rather cold and cloudy day in July.
We spent a few days in Llança on the coast near Figueres. One of my standard training routes there is running to a pass called "la Collada del Peral". The route there is rather technical and at times pretty steep. At the pass this time no beautiful views on one side since it very recently all burnt down.
Another day, continuing the same route I went up to the Sant Pere de Rodes Monastery and the ruins of a castle just above it. The views from here are amazing. The last part is a very technical downhill with lots of loose stones and in general very irregular and the heel is more sensitive after this long run of more than 2 hours. This was on the 3rd of august, so just about one month after starting to run in the mountains again. So in spite of knowing I am working of the limits of what the heel can handle I am happy with my progress.
A few days later we changed scenery and went to the Pyrenees for a week. The first hike was up to Estanys de la Pera, near Lles de Cerdanya.
A second hike was to a a huge grass field on the edge of the steep Cadi mountain ridge.
Another day I went really early with Jordi to do a vertical kilometer from Masella to the top of la Tosa d'Alp. But up and down we were pushing hard and my
heel is holding strong now.
Still over a month of training left for the Ultra Pirineus. I really hope to make it to the start, and ofcourse to finish, however long it takes.
