I went back through three years of training logs. My heel always went in week nine.

The Solen Base Journal

Different plans, different races, the same week. Once I saw the pattern, I saw what was missing from the log.

By Haider Jafri, founder · 5 minute read

A dramatised story. The routine, the objects and the quotes come from real posts and reviews we read while making Solen Base, and the people quoted were writing about other products, not ours. The narrator is a composite, not a customer.

I'm the kind of runner who logs everything. I'm not proud of it, but it's true.

Pace. Heart rate. How I slept. Which shoes, and how many miles they've got on them. There's a spreadsheet. There are notes in my phone that go back years.

So after this year's block fell apart, I went back through the logs. I wanted to know if it was bad luck.

The pattern

It wasn't bad luck.

Three years. Three different plans, two marathons and a half. And in every one of them, the same kind of entry, at nearly the same point.

Two years ago, week nine: "heel sore, taped, skipped tempo."
Last year, week nine: "cut the long run, heel."
This year, week nine: "heel opened at 4mi. taped."

Forty two planned, seventeen run. That was this year's week nine.

I'm not going to pretend I know the exact reason. I'm not a scientist. But I've got a theory, and it's the obvious one. Week nine is roughly where the mileage has been building for a couple of months, and the skin on my heels has had a couple of months to get harder and more rigid. And at some point, something gives.

The session I never logged

Here's what got me.

I've got years of data on everything I do to my body when I'm running. And almost nothing on what I do for my feet when I'm not.

I searched the notes for "Vaseline". It came up a handful of times. Every single one was in the week before or the week of a heel going. Never before that. I only looked after my heels once they'd started to worry me.

Maintenance was the session I never logged, because it was the session I never did.

And I know why. Doing it properly was grim. Vaseline on, then a pair of old socks from the back of the drawer, the sacrificial ones, because it ruins them. Greasy sheets. That smell. So I only did it when I was already worried.

"I have a few pairs of socks that are my 'sacrificial socks' to get ruined by the vaseline."

A runner on a forum.

Making it a session

If it's a session, it goes in the log. If it goes in the log, I'll do it. That's just how my brain works.

So what I needed wasn't more Vaseline or a different balm. It was for Vaseline night to be something I could do twice a week, every week, from week one, without ruining a pair of socks each time.

That's what led me to Solen Base.

For Vaseline nights, there's the Night Sleeve. Open at the toes, covers the heel. Cotton on the outside and lined with gel on the inside. The gel side goes against the Vaseline. You use whatever you already use. Nothing is soaked into the fabric, and it goes in the wash at 40 degrees in a mesh bag.

For rest days, there's the Day Sock, closed toe.

It isn't for running in.
Not on a run, not in running shoes. Overnight and rest days only.

What I want

I want to log it from week one. Sunday and Wednesday nights, like any other session.

And next year, I want to scroll back to week nine and find nothing in it but miles.

If your logs have a week nine too, have a look at how the overnight kit works. There's a fourteen night guarantee.