Running is therapy

About 2 (?) months ago I stopped wearing my orthotics to see if that would help my heel. I think I can say unequivocally that it has. I am running a consistent 20 miles per week, and my heel (though not entirely healed) feels better than in has in a year.

However (you just knew there was going to be a however didn’t you), my hip (remember my hip? the whole reason I started wearing orthotics in the first place?) is starting to feel the same way it did when I went to get orthotics in the first place.

It’s not quite as bad as it was then, but it’s bad enough that I know I have to start wearing the orthotics again.

I plan to try wearing them only when I am walking around, and not on runs, at least initially.

I also hope to put up a marathon training post soon, as well as my schedule.

I left work around 5:30, drove back to Carlisle and and still had time to pull a 4 miler at the barracks before dark.

Sweet mother of mercy I hate the dark.

Messed around all morning, till I finally got out the door at almost 11. Ran 5 painful miles. That puts me at 17 for the week.

I did run 5 days this week, but I don’t feel like I pushed the envelope at all. But I still felt like crap out there today. My left leg, the one I always have problems with felt like it was coming apart. Maybe a 5 out of 10 for pain.

At one point my ankle started to feel like I was running on a sprain. No idea where that came from :)

Anyway, back down to 4 days this week.

Yesterday I went to the doctors (finally) for my 7 month old heel injury as well as some other reasons. For the last 5 months or so, I have also had some tendon pain in my elbow and I also for the last two years, been experiencing Raynaud’s syndrome in my hands.

So equipped with the requisite “hat trick” of issues, off I went.

She dismissed the elbow pain and Raynaud’s out of hand. The elbow is tendinitis, and the Raynaud’s is just bad luck. The heel, the main health issue I have been dealing with for 7 months? That she wasn’t happy about.

She ordered some xrays, which came back today as negative.

I have no idea what is wrong. Other than, she’s quite sure it’s not a tendon issue, and it’s not broken.

Off to the PT for me then. Get them to check me out and see what’s up.

I am just glad it wasn’t Lupus…which I had joked about and secretly feared for a long time.

Happy doctoring!

Bleh. I meant to blog this last weekend and then let it sit in my drafts.

Anyway, yours truly made his comeback to racing, last weekend.

I managed a 24:10 5K in the HARRC Winter Series January 5K. It was a blast.

And while I wish Bill would have been running, it was nice to have someone there to snap pics.

In health related news, my heel was feeling great for a couple of weeks. However lately there has been some pain again. So, in order to NOT go completely insane, I have made a doctors appointment for Monday. Who knows.

Happy running.

Tonight in my home town there was an active membership drive.

The club that was recruiting was call The Pussies. The indoctrination consisted of Not Running Tonight.

I declined the invitation to join and hit a 3 miler with my crazy balaclava in the freezing cold.

I am ready to close the door on 2008. At least as far as running goes.

Lots of things going well for me at the end of the year here, but I just want to put the 4 month layoff from running behind me.

I have been running consistantly for over a month, and I feel pretty good. I am not running a ton, but I am happy for now.

My heal is still sore, somewhat, but it’s managable. And honestly about half the time I forget that it’s injured at all.

I have also decided that I should switch my training week to Monday through Sunday. That gives me more flexibity with long runs (which I hope to begin adding in the next few weeks). It also prevents wacky reindeer games with running too much on the weekends because they fall in different weeks.

Pretty regularly lately, Bill and I have been doing a Run4Naan. Which means, we park at Passage to India, run 3 miles, and then head inside at the end and eat 4 million calories worth of Naan and other Indian food.

In fact, we met up just last night

Some stats:
Time: 28.29
Distance: 3.01
Average Heart Rate: 147 bpm
Calories Burned: 424

Did I say 11? I’m sorry. My bad. I meant 14. Totally slipped my mind that I was going to run today…

Or should I say, weak.

It’s funny, but I am actually really happy with my 11 mile week. I ran 3 miles with Bill on Tuesday night, and and then 3 miles xmas morning, and then 3 miles today. Toss on that, the 2 miler I did on Sunday, and that brings me to 11 for the week.

My heal is sore, but not tragically so. The plan is to stick to another week of 11 and not overdo it.

I also received a foot bath machine for xmas, so I will employ that this week to see if it helps at all.

I forgot my Garmin at work on Tuesday, so I didn’t get a chance to recored any of these runs, that was ok, and nice switch to not have my pace staring at me the whole time…but I miss the data.

Whatever Holiday you celebrate, I hope you had a nice one.

3 miles. That’s like…my whole life now. It’s the only distance I run. I have run it like, 7 times in a row.

So tonight, I was ready to run my 3, and realized my Garmin was dead. Fale.

When life gives you scurvy, make lemonade.

I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill.

ZOMG is that boring. I haven’t run indoors in a long time, and I hope to only do it infrequently. My god is that boring.

So, my heel is sore. Not bad, but sore. I think at least one more week of 9 miles (3*3) is in order.