Why is it that the "low" mileage weeks seem to be my nemesis? 18 was really good and then the next week when I think 14 will be a breeze I turn up with a major issue after 10 miles. All the sudden I noticed my foot was swinging out to the side weird and all wonky. Nothing was hurting so it didn't make sense and then soon after that the back inside of my left knee started killing me. It got so bad I ended up having to walk 2 minutes and attempt to run for 2 minutes. It was a brutal 4 miles. I made sure to stretch really good post run but I was really nervous that something was really wrong because it hurt the whole rest of the day. I iced it and took some aleve and started some heavy praying. It's only now I could bring myself to blog without worrying about crying all over the computer. I can't be this close and then get hurt or not be able to see this thing through. The only good thing at first was that it wasn't a constant pain. It only hurt when I did certain things, mostly lifting my leg toward my body. So I tried to take it easy the rest of the weekend. It was pretty tender when I got up on Sunday so I stayed around the house and laid low. I had a 6 mile recovery run scheduled so I decided to ice it again, foam roll it out, stretch and then I would head out for a walk and try to run a little to see how it felt. So off I went. It felt fine walking so I walked it out for about 15 minutes. Then I stopped to stretch and attempt a very slow, very tender footed jog. NO GO. I took maybe 3 strides and it was KILLING me. This is so not good. I had to talk myself down the whole rest of the way. "It's going to be ok, just give it a couple days rest, You still have time before the race, It doesn't hurt all the time" Oh yeah "JUST WHEN I AM RUNNING!!" Ok so the conversation in my head wasn't all positive. But i just kept reminding myself, or rather trying to convince myself that everything would be ok. Walking was fine and I decided that even if I have to CRAWL across that finish line I would make it. Although I really hope that is not the case. SO back home to more foam rolling, icing, aleve and self therapy. Can I tell you how NOT fun foam rolling is? It's so not fun. I had a chance to talk it out with my friend Jack at dinner so it didn't seem as huge after that. Monday it felt a little better and I continued my prescription of foam rolling, ice, aleve and stretching. I also decided I would be getting new shoes, sending my coach an email for some pointers and scheduling a massage.
I hadn't heard back from my coach so on Tuesday morning I went to the gym and decided to do a little elliptical to see how it felt and try to run on the treadmill. Thankfully the elliptical felt fine, so I can always do that to keep my cardio up. I got on the treadmill and asked my trainer to watch my feet to see if I was doing anything weird. I started a slow jog and although I could feel it, it wasn't hurting. She said my feet were striking pretty normal so I jogged for couple minutes and then shut it down and did more elliptical. No sense pushing it. I went by the running store in the evening after work and spilled my whole story to the poor sales guy. He was great though and reassured me that I was doing everything I could to help it. He gave me some insight into what could have happened on Saturday, being possible hydration issue, terrain issues and such. And he got me into some snazzy new Asics. He even took video of me running to make sure my stride was normal and sure enough, it looked like it was fine. Yaaay. Off I went my my new shoes and more positive feelings. Maybe it really is going to be ok. I came home to some good feedback from my coach and I did my nightly ritual and headed to bed.
This morning was the true test. Well no, the true test will be Saturday when I have to run 20 but today was a good trial. I decided to try to do the 4 miles scheduled in my training with the head space to take it easy and walk if I felt any pain. It is feeling good so I don't want to set it back. I even got up early to foam roll before I took off. So new shoes tied on, off I went. I walked to the corner to warm up and I took off with a slow jog on the dirt path. I watched my feet like hawks, making sure they were striking straight, and low and behold, it wasn't so bad. I could feel it but it wasn't hurting and it wasn't getting worse and it got better as I warmed up. My calves did get pretty tight so I just stopped and stretched them and then kept going. I ended up doing the whole 4 miles with no real pain. I can't tell you how happy I was when I hit stop on the watch. Ok game is back on. I can do this. Praise the Lord for foam rollers, aleve, new shoes and healing.
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