Running is therapy

*sigh* I am still hurt. My heel doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I paid for some xrays on Wednesday and there was no apparent fracture so that is good. But the pain seems worse at times and then totally gone at others. I have no idea.

I am still going to give it a few more days before I try to figure out what to do. Likely it’s a tendon problem and continued rest will fix it. Sunday would be the earliest day I would attempt a run, but it will likely, pain permitting, be next week some time.

Ok, after sitting here resting the heel for 40 minutes, I stood up and it hurt like hell. That settles it. I will be riding the bike tomorrow. Which will give it at least 3 days of no running.

Better to miss now, and get back to training than missing a month. Or worse, tearing a tendon.

Time to smarten up on this injury.

I am not convinced I have PF I don’t really know what it is. My heel hurts, but it’s on the back of the heel, not the bottom. If you were standing, and touched the back of your foot closest to the ground in the center, that is where the pain is.

I am not sure what to make of it, or what the course of action is. If it’s the Achilles tendon, and where it inserts, that is also bad news, but it’s not the kind of pain that I am reading about online.

I am debating riding the bike tomorrow instead of running. We’ll see. If I run, it will be 3 miles, slow. Then off Friday for my homage to my hometown.

While I am excited to see family and friends, I also dread going home, so it’s a mixed blessing. Such are the trials and tribulations of middle aged men who haven’t grown up.

I like that I had talked myself into the idea that I was going to actually run 8:40’s. I fool only myself.

I just put this up as a novelty. Bill had brought his Flip Cam to the race so we were dorking around with it. Those things are pretty fun! I was also interested in film of my stride, so we shot this as well.

However I am not sure it shows too much.

Decided that since I am cutting back on the mileage this week instead of doing my scheduled 8 miler this morning, I would bookend 3 mile bike rides with a 4 mile run in the middle.

Except for being up until 2:30 drinking beer and then getting up at 7 am it came off without a hitch. I bet Lance Armstrong trains this way.

Bike 0
Run
Bike 1

Last week I was having heel pain. Because PF is nothing you should mess with, I promptly took 3 days off with no running. Yesterday however I was scheduled to run the Spirit of Gettysburg 5K. I figured I would shoot for a ~27:xx time and just have fun.

Well, I am not usually one to have fun. I tried to keep it cool for the first mile and had some success, turning in an 8:14. I was shooting for 8:40, so I chalked that up to first mile exuberance. Then, well…I took off. I clocked in at 7:47 for the second mile and then a 7:54 for the last, and ~55 seconds for the final .13 (according to my garmin). Giving me an unofficial time of 24:52.

It was fun, but stupid. I should have stuck to my plan. My heal was pretty sore after that.

Since then I have been using ice, advil and lots of stretching and it actually feels pretty good now.

I think I am injured, but I think it will be ok. Going to reduce pace and mileage this week, and lots of RAID (Running, Advil, Ice and Drinking).

My week is already getting crazy with things I need to accomplish and running goals that need to be met.

I am going to take a bit of a step back though. I have been overdoing it, albeit on purpose somewhat, in an effort to build a strong base. However one of the cornerstones of that is affirming that fitness is not derived from hard workouts, it is derived from the rest after hard workouts. To that end, I am going to cut the week to 4 days. This will help with some time crunch I am feeling as well as allowing me to heal a bit more.

I ran 5 miles VERY SLOW tonight. And while it felt fine, I am not feeling recovered. I still have a lot of muscle soreness, and there is a pain in my heel that is coming and going. Before that turns into a month long lay off, I am going to do the prudent thing, and step back.

Current plan is to take off tomorrow. 5 easy on Thursday, Friday off, then some easy miles plus a “temposish” pace for the Spirit of Gettysburg race on Saturday.

I know some people think it’s silly to not race a race hard, but I really just go for the t-shirts anyway, so whatever.

I just ground my quads to hamburger on a 10 miler.

Between the heat, skipping my off day and running primarily on pavement today, my legs are pretty sore. On the upside I finally tried a gel while running. I took it at 7 miles into the 10. I am not sure it did anything, but that wasn’t really why I tried it. I mostly tried to make sure I wouldn’t…have to use the restroom…right after downing it. And while that part worked out in my favor, and the taste wasn’t as bad as I made out in my head, it was still gross. 7 miles of hot sweaty running, the last thing I want is a pouch of hot vanilla frosting sliding across my tongue. Not to mention I had only brought Gatorade along for the run, so washing it down with more sickening sweetness sucked.

I had to go way slow, I was feeling pretty ugly and beat up by the end.

Oh well, tomorrow is an off day. Then the plan takes it a little easier than I have been, and I plan to follow it. Only 16 more miles in the rest of the week.

Motionbased link

Some stats:
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:53:02
Pace: 11:17
Avg HR: 155 bpm
Calories Burned: 1414

An extra run got tossed on the training this week. Because of the holiday yesterday I decided that I would run an additional 5 at Pine Grove Furnace. Then my regularly scheduled 5 miler today brings me to another 30 mile week.

I have a little soreness in the quads and above my patellas, nothing earth shattering though.

Todays run was a slow one here in Carlisle.

1 mile splits: 10:24, 10:39, 10:56, 10:28, 10:07

Some stats:
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 52:35
Pace: 10:30 minutes/mile
Avg heart rate: 141
Calories burned: 730

My plan is 25 miles this week. Last night I went over to the Greenbelt with Hathaway for a speedy 5 miler. It was a lot of fun, but I ran way too fast. I was a little sore tonight for my 3 miler.

I also ran late tonight. I had dinner with a friend and so I didn’t even get to the barracks until 8ish. I went _very_ slow. It was nice. An easy 4 for tomorrow. Should be nice.

Sunday starts training for real. Can’t wait!