My foot hates me

Injuries have a funny way of working sometimes. All day Monday I was pain free, but it was the exact opposite on Tuesday. Wednesday was ok and so was today, but I still had a little bit of pain. It's more frustrating than anything, let me tell you.

You know what else is peculiar? I graduated and I can't be on my parents' insurance plan anymore. Which means I'll have to pay a bunch if I go to the doc or any other health related place that will try to fix me. Soooooo yea.

The bike has become my best friend as of late, and I added the mileage count to my sidebar. Tuesday I did an easy 10.5 miles, Wednesday I did an easy 6, and today I did 16 miles of which about 10 miles were devoted to speed intervals. I guess it's the least I can do without being able to go on a treadmill or elliptical for the time being. This weekend I'm gonna buy an aqua jogger float so I can get going on that.

I also added a couple more races to my future schedule - the Capitol City Half Marathon on September 30, which is conveniently 3 weeks before the Detroit Marathon on the just-announced date of October 21. As far as I'm concerned, I'm gonna be totally healthy and I'm gonna get some sweet redemption.

I guess injuries have a way of making me shorten my posts too.

Just go away already...

In order to save everybody from the boring details, basically I went out for a run last Sunday intending to do at least 10 and as many as 14 miles, but I only got 5 down before the arch started bothering me. I stopped, massaged it a little, and kept going....and I could only manage two to three more miles before it was definitely hurting. So all during the rest of the day I kept oscillating between a state of anger (because I'm hurting again) and a state of depression (because I can't seem to get a freaking long run in anymore).

I was wearing my usual running shoes when it happened. On Monday I went to work and one of the employees told me that my feet may still be getting used to the new inserts (I got them last Wednesday), but I didn't think they needed that much time to get used to them since they felt the same as the last one. So that was one theory. Then on Tuesday morning I was talking to a friend who just did a presentation at the Michigan American College of Sports Medicine conference on her own foot biomechanics, and she noticed that the shoes I've been using for everyday purposes (Asics 1100) has the dual density foam on the outside heel like most running shoes do, but this rubber cut off in the middle of the arch instead of supporting the whole arch. So that's another theory and it makes sense because I bought the shoes at the sidewalk sale in middle January and shortly thereafter I started getting pain. So, I've mostly been wearing my Adrenalines the past couple days and things have been getting progressively better. Thursday I wore the Saucony Jazz 11 (the test shoes)...I had them on for a grand total of about 12 hours (it was a LONG day) and I barely felt any pain at all. So basically I think my problem was a case of those two theories. I stopped wearing the Asics 1100 altogether and I'm gonna get a new pair at Playmakers. One of my buddies who works there wants me to wait until the pain goes away completely so that he can analyze my gait on the treadmill and find the best shoes for me.

Soooooooo it felt better in the couple of days after that, so I didn't schedule a doctor appointment. Tuesday I biked 10 miles and lifted weights with the legs, Wednesday I biked 6 miles and did upper body, and Thursday I did 14 miles on the bike, 9.5 of which were speed intervals. So I'm trying to keep my aerobic fitness up as well as I can. It just sucks because my longest run has only been 10 miles so far, and Boston is less than 2 months away now.

Friday was an off day, but I went to see a friend's band play at a local place...while we were standing around, the arch started bugging me again and that obviously didn't make me too happy. Saturday it kind of felt better and today was about the same, but it's still there. It's hard to be specific in words about where something hurts, but it's along the medial side of the foot below the bones....if that makes any sense. Saturday I biked 6 miles and today I did 5 more...eventually this week I'm gonna make myself do some aqua jogging, but I'm also definitely gonna call the doc tomorrow. It seems like there's no way I can't call him.

I'm also in a real battle with myself about whether or not I'll actually run the Boston Marathon. I'm going there whether I like it or not because the plane ticket and hotel is already booked. If worse comes to worse, I can always cheer on my sister and soak in the atmosphere. It just seems like it would be a stupid idea to run it, seeing as how I've done far less than what many consider to be the bare minimum of a marathon training plan. Well I guess if there's anything good about this, it's that my time from Detroit also qualified me for the 2008 Boston because they're good for a year and a half. And I've also been doing a bunch of leg exercises in the hopes of strengthening weak areas, so I'll (hopefully) be a stronger runner when I'm healthy again.

Oh well....I just want this to go away already....

Quote me

Alright, first things first: For all you people who read Runner's World, you know there's a shoe review in there every now and then, as there is in the March issue. They also mention on the front page of the section that the biomechanic testing is done at Michigan State University and they utilize wear testers in 3 cities, one of them being East Lansing. Well, I've applied to the program twice to no avail, and I guess the third time is a charm because I'm in this time around. I got there sort of late on Tuesday so there wasn't much of a selection left for my size-12 feet, but I picked up a pair of Saucony Grid Jazz 11 shoes. Sooooo.....maybe in a few months you'll see a quote from me in Runner's World :) It's also cool because, since East Lansing is one of the cities that take part in the program, I recognize the names of a bunch of people they quote in there.

First impression? The toe box is definitely bigger than the Asics and Brooks shoes I'm used to; this is my first time wearing Saucony. Other than that, it just kind of felt like any other shoe I've ever worn. I broke the shoes in a bit Tuesday night and then took them for a spin on the treadmill Wednesday morning. I was planning on doing 5 or 6 miles, but after about 3.5 my arch started bothering me a little bit.....oh great. I rounded it up to 4 miles and called it quits just to be cautious. The shoes weren't to blame, they felt great. It was something else that I failed to notice that should've been obvious....

All during the rest of the day, the pain became a bit worse because I had to work that afternoon. On Wednesday nights, Playmakers hosts a sports injury clinic where physical therapists and other professional health-oriented individuals help "patients" out with their problems on a free individual basis. I stayed after work for the clinic to figure out my problem, and we discovered that the insert I had (Stabilizer) was too narrow for my foot so when I came down and flattened my foot out, my foot kind of overflowed on the sides and the insert ended up pinching me....and I never noticed it until now. So, we tried something else called a Stable Lite insert. Apparently the owner of Playmakers helped design it, but instead of being a full insert like the Stabilizer, the Stable Lite is a half insert for the heel and arch. It's also a little more flexible and forgiving than the Stabilizer is. Long story short, I put the new Stable Lite insert in my shoes, wore them around on Thursday, and by Friday it was like night and day. The pain was pretty much gone!

Friday night I biked 3 miles, did 5 miles on the elliptical and then biked 5 more miles, and things felt great. So I'm just gonna go with these inserts until further notice. Today I biked 6 miles and did some upper body exercises, and tomorrow's gonna be a long run of mileage to be determined. So that's me in a nutshell in the past 5 days. It's been a rollercoaster of frustration for sure.

Agony and ecstasy

I've calmed down a little since the last post. Granted, I didn't run at all this weekend but I found ways to keep my body working. Friday I worked the upper body and Saturday I biked 12.5 miles while studying. Sunday normally would be a long run for me but a) my foot wasn't back to 100% yet and b) it's effing FREEZING outside! So I just made it a somewhat relaxing day. This morning I was going to make up for it at the gym. My foot was feeling much better but I couldn't tell if it was all the way better or not, so my plan was to go 4 or 5 miles on the elliptical and if all went well, I'd do another 5 or so on the treadmill and call it a long run. Well, it sort of hurt on the elliptical, though not so much that it was alarming, but my thought process was erring on the side of caution. If it sort of hurt on the elliptical, it was going to hurt on the treadmill. So after doing 4 on the elliptical, I hopped on the bike for 12 miles. Quality long workout, check.

In all my grumpiness of the last post, I forgot to mention that they're retaining me at Playmakers! Last Monday when I came in, one of the higher-uppers came up to me and told me the news, and we figured out a training schedule for this week. Today was the first day of getting to know the basics, and it's going well so far. They retained me and another kid who I happened to go to high school with, so we're both happy about that.

Yesterday was the Super Bowl 5K, a race that starts right behind Playmakers and goes through the neighboring subdivision. Have you heard how cold it is here??? I checked out the results and they were almost laughable. The winner ran it in 16:41, but he recently ran a 15 minute 5K. The second place guy (18:08) won most of the Playmakers-sponsored races last year with times around 16 minutes. My buddy Tony came in 6th with a time of 18:56, and he said he fell twice during the race. So you can just imagine what it was like to be out there.

Anyway, the foot is feeling better. Not all the way yet, but it's a lot better. I'll end with this quote - I find it to be pretty ironic because it came from the Phedippidations podcast that was uploaded on the day I ran the Detroit Marathon. And, as you all know, there definitely was agony and ecstasy involved with that race...

"Running is both an agony and an ecstasy. It's both solitude and companionship. It promises great joy and enormous disappointment through setbacks and injury. Running is with us through the good times and the bad times. It offers us a chance to live a life of real fulfillment at the terrible risk of crushing failure. But, as runners, we've accepted that risk, we've taken the challenge and we fight a good fight for a noble purpose." --Steve Runner, Phedippidations podcast, 10/29/06

I'm nothing without pain

I'm a busy guy who needs to go to bed right now, that's just how it is.

Monday I biked 11 miles, Tuesday I ellipticalled for 4 miles and my left arch kind of felt funky afterwards...more on that in a second. Wednesday I biked 6 miles, and today I was gonna set out two run 4 or 5 miles. Welllllll my left arch had felt better by today so I was gonna give it a try, but I only got 2 miles on the treadmill before it was hurting me like nothing else. I've had these new custom made inserts for a month and a half now, so I figure I should be more than used to them by now. Anyway I got really frustrated because my IT band felt absolutely fantastic, and now something else happens to me. Figures. I biked 5 more low-impact miles after that just to get some volume in that I wasn't able to get with the running. I've iced the foot numerous times since then and it's feeling better now, but I doubt I'll be able to run tomorrow like I was planning on doing. I'll probably just bike.....who knows.

I wish I had a "get out of pain free" card.