But, this is where I was .
It was a good workout, shortish but I did not want to stress things too much. My plan was to do some easy intervals with long walk breaks and I almost did that. Started off with two minutes walking, five minutes at 9 min miles, 2 minutes walking, 2 minutes at 9 min miles, three minutes at 8:20, two minutes at 7:50, one minute at 8:20, one minute at 8:50, one minute at 9:30. All told 2.15 miles in 20 minutes a solid workout.
Plod On
Sunday did not go off as planned, not even close. My plan was to head out to my local running room and do a run walk thing outside with all my running buddies. Well actually have coffee with them because none of them do the run/walk thing.
I woke up in time, but my foot was a little sore from the Saturday intervals, and the wind was howling so I thought it best to take the day off. No treadmill, no running, just a sitting on the sofa watching football kind of day off. That did not go as planned either. The winds grew in intensity, there were power outages and the downtown core was shut down. Debris was flying through the air over all not a nice day.
Within blocks of my house street lights (those long skinny poles) were blown over, and several large spruce trees were downed.
Then to top it all off it got cold and snowy. This is one of the poles that was literally blown off it’s base. You can see the damage to the light where it made contact with the road.
A large tree uprooted and a basketball hoop reoriented.
I don’t know how this tree missed this house. The wind was blowing in the direction of the house, someone is very lucky. I can see where the tree was from my place.
So anyway I took the day off and let things in my foot settle out. Then this morning I woke at 5:30, reluctantly got dressed and headed for the treadmill. My plan was to maybe try a longer interval at a slower pace and see how things worked out. I warmed up for 2 minutes then did 8 minutes at 10 min miles then 10 minutes at 9 minute miles, then cooled down.
Yee Haw an actual sort of full length very slow run. First one since September and it felt great. I could feel a little tenderness when I started but so far no post run pain. The real test will be when I wake up tomorrow.
Great day a real run 22 minutes, 2.2 miles! Woo Hoo.
Plod On
I had a great plan for the day, a nice easy recovery walk on the treadmill topping out at 4.5 mph for about 25 minutes. I put it off and procrastinated long enough that when it was halftime in the Auburn game it was do or die time , so I pulled on my running shorts and did.
I started out with the plan but when I hit the 5 minute mark things were feeling Ok so I bumped up the pace to a slow run (9 min miles) then 2 minutes later 8:30 min miles, then 2 minutes later 7:55 min miles. then back to a walk for 4 minutes and then I repeated the progression and threw in an extra minute at 7:30 min pace. Holy crap fastest bestest pace since I injured my foot. Then I progressed back down for a cool down.
Once the sweat had really started We took the dog to the park for a walk and my further cool down.
The view of downtown was crazy beautiful, and you can see that even though it was a nice day the locals are dressed for winter.
It turned out to be a great day for me, 25 minutes 2.45 miles on the treadmill, followed by 12 minutes .65 miles outside. Hitting the mall with the kids right after the shower was not the best idea.
We will have to see what tomorrow brings!
Plod On
When I ran cross country in university there were two levels of pain, the stuff you could run through and the stuff where you were lying on the ground screaming and grabbing a body part. Now thirty years later, and in my 50s there are many more layers to the pain story. I guess this latest injury is teaching me that I need to listen and back off when things start to feel not right.
I thought my foot was doing really well until last night when my daughter cut in front of me and I inadvertently stepped on her heel. Just suddenly bending the foot in that fashion sent a jolt of pain up my spinal column. I realized that it is doing better but is still an issue.
What I need is a control panel like the one on my treadmill so I can dial it back and put a limit on what I do.
Now for today’s workout. I decided to do a workout without a real plan in mind today. Partly because I was concerned about the foot twist yesterday and partly because I wanted to stress it a little more than yesterday. What I liked best about it is that I managed to squeeze in 2 jogging intervals, 5 minutes at 10 min miles, 4 min @ 9 + 2 min @ 8:20 min miles. Even though I was tempted to do more I listened to my foot and backed off. There was a little pulling but overall a good story. 45 minutes, 3.6 miles a good day
Plod On
I know that it is a hard concept to grasp, why on earth would someone need a recovery day from a WALK on the treadmill. I have taken recovery days after a speed workout where my legs felt like jello, or after a hard hill workout. But after a walk with a five minute slow jog, uh uh. This morning I could feel some tenderness in the area around my foot injury and decided that it was best to play it safe. I limited the pace to 4.5 mph and just tried walking it out.
The foot is a little tender post walk but no more than usual and I do not think any damage was done. The plan calls for gradually increasing the stress on the foot gradually so some tenderness is expected. I am just being careful not to exacerbate the injury.
All in all I ended up doing almost 2.2 miles in the 30 minutes so it was no walk in the park (pun intended).
Plod On
This morning I tried to make the treadmill walk more interesting by randomly playing my full play list on the iPhone. This is a great way to rediscover favourite songs that I don’t usually listen too. The down side is that sometimes the songs are not upbeat enough to supercharge your workout. This worked out Ok as I am trying to work my foot without stressing it too much so slower is not a bad thing.
This mornings workout was kind of cool, I took the walk up to 5 mph (12min mile) for 5 minutes, then introduced a slow jog at 5.5 mph (11 min mile) for another 5 minutes. Everything felt fine, even now an hour or so after the walk my foot is not reacting,
Good morning 25 minutes, 2 miles.
Plod On
I forgot how it felt to have a normal workout. A workout where it did not hurt much, where there is not a goal, where you are not counting strides. A workout where you are not constantly checking your Garmin for pace. In essence a workout where you just are. This mornings workout was that kind. I need to do more of them.
There was a little pulling on the top of my foot but other than that it was clean. I did a slow warm-up and then set the treadmill to 4.5 mph and rocked out to tunes (not my running playlist) for the next 26 minutes then did a little cool down. The only interruption to this state was when sportscenter showed Crosby’s return to the game and I removed one head phone to listen in.
In total did 30 minutes and 2.2 miles and feel pretty good about it.
Plod On.
twenty five minutes walking on the treadmill. It was cold and dark outside at 5:30 AM so I was inside in the dungeon walking through a torturous 1.85 miles at a 1.5% grade. In fact it was so exciting this morning that there are no pictures.
After the workout yesterday there was a pinching feeling on either on the inside lower right quad , or lower hamstring (same place). Also, I woke up this morning with tenderness when I flexed the foot, both on the outside of the foot halfway up and in the injured spot. Needless to say I dialled it back a bit, took a little longer warm up and then limited the pace to 4.5 mph. There was a little discomfort during the workout, and a little more intense afterward. The quad is sensitive to pokes but overall is OK.
It seems that it is all coming together.
Plod On
I hate having to get new shoes. As a runner there is always a feeling of uncertainty as I try to pick and break-in a new pair of shoes and figure out if they will work for my narrow feet.
I usually have three pairs of shoes on the go, my favourite go to outside shoe, an alternate outside shoe (soon to be the fav) and a treadmill shoe. The poor treadmill shoe is usually a shoe that I did not feel that comfortable in outside or one picked specifically for the task.
I think it might be time to retire my treadmill shoes. I wrote about them when I bought them as an outside shoe here.
I found them to be too noisy when I ran and felt like my feet were slapping the ground. The only reason that I bought them is that my usual shoe (asics cumulous) did not feel right on my foot in the store. I put a lot of miles on them outside and then moved them to the treadmill where I logged several hundred miles on them and they were great. They now look like this.
You can see that the tread on the ball of the foot is gone and the black next layer is showing through. Where the toes bend the fabric is starting to tear.
Usually the tearing is more pronounced on the outside shoe (see above). I wonder if this is a stride difference from the tread mill. More tread wear less upper wear?
So with great trepidation I must start to search for a new pair of shoes.
Today’s walk was great, I planned on doing 25 minutes but ended up going longer, and when ‘hey soul sister’ by train came on I upped the walking pace to a just about run (over 5 mph / 12 min mile). It all felt good but I am fairly tender after the workout. It is ice and Ibuprofen time. Good workout 2.2 miles 30 minutes first time I have done any consecutive days in 3 months. I hope it keeps up.
Plod On.
outside this morning. Look at those outdoor temps a little cooler than I would like for this time of year. Good thing I am a Canadian cause if we had this for Thanksgiving I would be distraught.
Anyway I was saying because it was like that this morning I was like downstairs on this.
Actually I have been advised to do my workout on this gizmo for the next little while as it is a lower impact activity. So regardless that is was freezing effin cold outside this still would have been my morning workout view.
So details, I guess first of all I did not realize how much I missed the good feeling after a run (very fast walk in my case). I hate to say it but Swimming and Biking just don’t give me that feeling.
I upped the ante for today, kind of a double whammy, 1) I am starting to do a daily 25 or so on the mill, and 2) I kind of cheated and upped the pace so for a couple of short intervals I did a very slow jog like action.
Everything felt really good, had a pain in my right shin (go figure?) and a little tenderness in my left foot (expected). Post work out I am feeling the tender spot on my foot when I flex it a certain way so it is back to wearing shoes all day for this cowboy. Overall I’d give this work out a 7. 2,5 miles, 30 minutes.
Plod On.
I saw my chiropractor today and we agreed on a plan for the next few weeks. Just to be clear Dr. Nardella is really more of a sports medicine guy than a crack your back kind of guy. First of all no more x-rays for a while, good news as I have been spending a lot of time with the radiology guys.
The x-rays told me a bunch of cool stuff, like I have bone spurs on both heels, my hammer toe is rather pronounced and my left leg is .65 cm shorter than my right leg.
What they did not tell me is what is causing the pain in my foot. The theory is still ligament damage or stress fracture. The leaning is more to ligament damage now based on my treadmill experience.
The bad news is it is gonna be a slow go for the next few weeks while easing my foot back into the stresses of running.
The plan is that next week we (I) will continue the brisk walks on the treadmill and will eliminate the day off. So 25 minutes everyday next week, and increase stretching effort (should not be hard to increase as I don't do any).
If everything goes well week 2 will see the introduction of some run walks into the routine. 5 minutes at a SLOW jog (like that will fly) followed by 1 minute of walking.
If the foot can handle it then in week 3 I will increase the pace and time of the run intervals.
Then we will reevaluate and come up with a new plan just in time for Christmas.
Plod On.
I guess it is time to get back at the blogging thing. I sort of got out of the habit when I had to slow down on the running after slicing the end off my thumb in a Kitchen (that’s right KITCHEN) accident. The combination of pain killers and antibiotics played havoc with my system for a few weeks and effectively killed my project 365 thing.
In July we had a great vacation in the Okanogan area and I started back running everyday. I did some great runs along the lakes and rivers out there while maintaining a decent weekly mileage.
I continued running until September 4 when I was on a long run with the group from the running room. About 2 km into the run I stepped on a large rock right under the arch of my foot. I remember uttering a few expletives and then continuing the run. I was running down a slight incline with 0.5 km of my 19 km run in when something snapped and I had to stop. I hobbled back to the car and knew things were not right. It turns out I either damaged a ligament in between the small bones of the feet or have a stress fracture. It does not really matter cause the treatment is the same NO running.
Since then I have been cycling and swimming and couch potato-ing while my system recovers. None of those activities are particularly satisfying.
This week I got the green light to start light treadmill workouts to test the injury without doing more damage. So every second day I have been doing 25 minutes on the treadmill at a fast walk (4.5 mph 13.5 min miles) and so far so good. I can feel it a little at the start of the workout but no serious symptoms. Fingers crossed - I will be able to start light running next week.
Finally I will have something to report on this medium again.
Plod On.
