Training Fail

I got my first overuse injury and I'm still nearly two months away from Go-Day.

I've been running myself too hard. Fourteen days straight of trail running and hiking, but the last two days put me out a bit. On Saturday I biked 12 miles to a trail head in Big Basin, then hiked 12 miles to the summit of a very steep peak with sweeping vistas of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The views were amazing, and I felt good, although the tranquility was somewhat disturbed by a loud, obnoxious group of neon sunglasses-wearing hipsters from a nearby campground. They were scared of cougars, they said, so they were yelling in all directions. Hipsters...

I hiked another 7 miles in to loop back to my bike just before darkness fell. My problem is that I don't take any breaks, and I hike like I'm being chased by the 5-O; Super fast, usually 4 mph, and while it has gotten me in good shape, I'd like to be able to slow down a bit. I did, however, stop to take pictures of a newt and a banana slug.

The next morning, (today) I hiked a 15 mile loop at Nicene Marks SP, and my ankle immediately felt very sore. "Maybe my shoe is too tight?" I thought, but I just charged uphill for 8 miles, ignoring the pain. When I reached the top of the mountain, the pain became overwhelming. Had I been backpacking, I would have crashed right there and rested, but my truck was 7 miles away. To say the way back felt long would be an understatement. My foot, and now my entire leg, was numb with shooting pain. I thought about resting, but knew that if I sat down, I would not be getting back up so easy, and this turned out to be true because I made it to my car and drove home, but when I got out of the car my ankle was completely stiff. I winced trying to walk on it.

All I can think about is that if this happens to my ankle on back-to-back 15+ mile days, whats happens on the PCT when I try multiple 20+ mile days? Well, I think I'll be OK there if I just take care of myself with regular breaks, and try not to hike like a meth-rattled power walker. I can't imagine how much it would suck to injure myself while training for the PCT and not be able to thru-hike because of it. So I guess I'll ease up a bit. Plus, other hikers think I'm a weirdo and wonder where I'm off to in such a rush. I secretly just want to be their friend, but I can never let them know that...
Moving this week!