Moccasin Rehab

True to form I have not been blogging because I have not been running much. One month ago I headed out for a 4hr/50k run on the highway. I knew it would be very hard but I was prepared for it to be, mentally. What wasn't prepared were my peroneous muscles of my right leg. These are the two muscles running down the outside of your lower leg with tendons wrapping behind the knob on the outside of your ankle then attaching on or near the first metatarsal of your little toe (i'm pretty sure about this). Anyway, they are the muscles which 'twist' your foot. what happened was that the muscles of my legs were not conditioned enough to handle the camber of the road for that distance. There were likely other factors which came into play but this is the main cause. In any event I was injured. Because I headed out east immediately afterward for a week I did not deal with it, then was super busy when I got back. So I didn't get it treated for a while, and its not an injury that you can just ignore. In fact, I have had this exact injury before. In 2007 I did the Toronto Waterfront Marathon and with about 2 miles to go you reach a stretch of asphalt that is very worn and rough which was feeling really hard on my feet so looking to my left I saw a freshly paved gutter. I decided to run in the gutter which was nice and smooth but quite cambered. After the race my peroneous muscles tightened up to the extreme and I actually had a hard time walking. So, I am familiar with the injury and realized I just needed to get it worked on by a massage therapist.
I am new to this area running injury wise so I had to hunt around for a good RMT, my first stop was unsuccessful, then last week I found a good one. The first few days it didn't seem like he had solved my problem but after some self massage and extremely painful rolling on my nalgene bottle I am mostly back to normal. A crucial element has been keeping it loose and used by going for walks in my moccasins. What the moccasins allow for is stretch out and use the whole foot, most importantly the little toe. I have gone for 4 - 50+min runs in the last 5 days and feel no tightness today so I think i've got it licked.
So what to do about the Vancouver marathon in 4.5 weeks. Obviously still do it! I have been in this position before with JUST enough time to get into good shape for a race IF everything goes perfectly! So, we'll see how it goes, hill reps, long-tempo runs and lots of sleep. The one-cycle marathon prep looks like: tempo run - 2 days easy - hill repeat workout - 2 days easy - repeat. This will end with 5 days recovery before the race leaving, if everything goes to plan, 5 tempos and 4 hill rep workouts. Additionally, I am doing some strength work to maintain form in the late stages. Here we go!