My last entry was "When the sun's shining, make hay."
Well, the sun's no longer shining.
It figures. I talk about it, and I jinks myself.
Well, the sun's no longer shining.
It figures. I talk about it, and I jinks myself.
It's amazing how quickly things can change. I felt awesome last week. I felt like I was finally and fully recovered from the marathon. The 10K was smooth and no problems whatsoever. I took Monday off. Tuesday night, I felt awesome again......... until the end of the run.
For some reason late in Tuesday night's run, my foot started to get sore. I have no idea what caused it. I was a spry little fucker during most of the run, hopping and dodging puddles on the path. Yes, I was running in my Vibram Five-Fingers (more discussion about these later). So whatever happened, it wasn't anything noteworthy. I didn't sense a specific moment that pain started to occur. I did notice that with about a mile to go in the 11 mile run, that my foot was getting sore. It wasn't too annoying to stop, but was enough to want to ice it after the run.
Wednesday morning, it was very tender. My initial thoughts were that it was related to some foot pains I previously had in the weeks prior to the marathon: The top of my 1st metatarsal had been sore, right along a big honkin' vein. I thought that that was the cause of my racing flats being too tight. I can't rule out that these two might be related.
This time around though, the pain is along the top of my second metatarsal. A very small spot. Not radiating pain. No swelling. No discoloration. The pain comes as I push off on the ball of the foot, and stresses the metatarsal at top of the foot.
Anyway, as a typical runner - I spent Wednesday contemplating bailing on our planned track workout. I iced throughout the day, took some Motrin, and by 4:00 I determined that it really wasn't a major issue. I figured that I might be sore after, but it would still be worth hitting the track... especially if I was to continue with my push to get some CARA Circuit points. (Famous last words).
So Wednesday's track workout was great. The first "real" speed since the marathon. Chris, Verdo, and I did 5x 3x 200m cut downs. Similar to in the past: 35ish pace, then 33, then 32. The final 200, I buried at 30 and probably had plenty left in the tank to do a few more sets... but I didn't want to push it. Cardio and muscular wise, I felt great. I was back. It was a good tune up to run the Hot Chocolate 15K. Little did I know that I was creating more damage to myself.
Unfortunately, on the cool down, my foot was not happy with me. When I woke Thursday (yesterday) morning, I could barely walk on it. Immediately, I realized that I might have a serious problem.... aka stress fracture.
I contacted Jill Lohmann (a PT on the Fleet Feet team) as soon as I could, and she was able to take a look at it in the afternoon. In the mean time, I continued an aggressive treatment with ice, compression, and Motrin. After ruling out many different possibilities, Jill wasn't able to rule out a potential stress fracture.
Brings me to today - Woke up feeling no different. I made the call to see a doctor. All day long I iced, compressed, pumped Motrin into the system. By some miracle, I will say that as the day wore on and after I walked around a little to get lunch, I did notice it feeling marginally better. Not much - but enough to give me a ray of hope.
Luckily I was able to get into see an ortho-podiatrist this evening. After he did a few tests (though no X-ray / MRI / Bone-Scan) - he actually ruled out a stress fracture. Apparently it doesn't have quite the same characteristics. That's not to say that a stress fracture isn't possible in the future, if I'm not careful. His claim is that he believes the metatarsal has merely been "stressed." I pushed it to a near extreme. I'm going to need to be aggressive continuing with the ice, compression, and anti-inflammatory. ......No running! At least for a week. I can't imagine wanting to run at this moment, so that's not a terrible thing.
SO - for now I'll just do that and be extra cautious. My circuit season is over. No more points. No more racing... at least now. I can deal with this. It's not the end of the world. I still PR'd in every distance I touched this year. And I'm still not ruling out the USATF XC Club Finals in December. We reassess in a week and in the mean time, I can get back into swimming for the next couple weeks to help maintain my fitness.
And for those of you that have been DYING to say, "I told you so!!"... OK, have your glory now... Yes, quite possibly ONE contributing factor in this has been my running in the Vibram Five-Fingers. To my defense, I'll say that I have NEVER felt better about my running -at least until I woke up the other morning. That is total honesty here. Those Five-Fingers have cleared up some major, long time issues of mine... and only in a matter of a few weeks. But for now, as much as I love those shoes, I admit... I might have pushed the envelope just a little too much for post-marathon running.
Disclosure: This is the first time I'm actually admitting on this blog to my Five-Finger running - I've been doing some of my easier runs in them for the last 3 weeks. Including a couple runs the week of the marathon. I'll explain more in another post. First let me get things back to an even keel.
So, I leave with this - Run every run like it's your last run! Enjoy it. You don't need to blow it out, but soak it up. You never know. I learned a good lesson the other day... I did absoultely NOTHING wrong on the run. I never mis-stepped; I never tripped; I never rolled an ankle; didn't kick anything... NOTHING. I felt great until the very end. And yet, I wound up pissing off something somewhere along the miles.
The trials of miles... and the miles of trials!
For some reason late in Tuesday night's run, my foot started to get sore. I have no idea what caused it. I was a spry little fucker during most of the run, hopping and dodging puddles on the path. Yes, I was running in my Vibram Five-Fingers (more discussion about these later). So whatever happened, it wasn't anything noteworthy. I didn't sense a specific moment that pain started to occur. I did notice that with about a mile to go in the 11 mile run, that my foot was getting sore. It wasn't too annoying to stop, but was enough to want to ice it after the run.
Wednesday morning, it was very tender. My initial thoughts were that it was related to some foot pains I previously had in the weeks prior to the marathon: The top of my 1st metatarsal had been sore, right along a big honkin' vein. I thought that that was the cause of my racing flats being too tight. I can't rule out that these two might be related.
This time around though, the pain is along the top of my second metatarsal. A very small spot. Not radiating pain. No swelling. No discoloration. The pain comes as I push off on the ball of the foot, and stresses the metatarsal at top of the foot.
Anyway, as a typical runner - I spent Wednesday contemplating bailing on our planned track workout. I iced throughout the day, took some Motrin, and by 4:00 I determined that it really wasn't a major issue. I figured that I might be sore after, but it would still be worth hitting the track... especially if I was to continue with my push to get some CARA Circuit points. (Famous last words).
So Wednesday's track workout was great. The first "real" speed since the marathon. Chris, Verdo, and I did 5x 3x 200m cut downs. Similar to in the past: 35ish pace, then 33, then 32. The final 200, I buried at 30 and probably had plenty left in the tank to do a few more sets... but I didn't want to push it. Cardio and muscular wise, I felt great. I was back. It was a good tune up to run the Hot Chocolate 15K. Little did I know that I was creating more damage to myself.
Unfortunately, on the cool down, my foot was not happy with me. When I woke Thursday (yesterday) morning, I could barely walk on it. Immediately, I realized that I might have a serious problem.... aka stress fracture.
I contacted Jill Lohmann (a PT on the Fleet Feet team) as soon as I could, and she was able to take a look at it in the afternoon. In the mean time, I continued an aggressive treatment with ice, compression, and Motrin. After ruling out many different possibilities, Jill wasn't able to rule out a potential stress fracture.
Brings me to today - Woke up feeling no different. I made the call to see a doctor. All day long I iced, compressed, pumped Motrin into the system. By some miracle, I will say that as the day wore on and after I walked around a little to get lunch, I did notice it feeling marginally better. Not much - but enough to give me a ray of hope.
Luckily I was able to get into see an ortho-podiatrist this evening. After he did a few tests (though no X-ray / MRI / Bone-Scan) - he actually ruled out a stress fracture. Apparently it doesn't have quite the same characteristics. That's not to say that a stress fracture isn't possible in the future, if I'm not careful. His claim is that he believes the metatarsal has merely been "stressed." I pushed it to a near extreme. I'm going to need to be aggressive continuing with the ice, compression, and anti-inflammatory. ......No running! At least for a week. I can't imagine wanting to run at this moment, so that's not a terrible thing.
SO - for now I'll just do that and be extra cautious. My circuit season is over. No more points. No more racing... at least now. I can deal with this. It's not the end of the world. I still PR'd in every distance I touched this year. And I'm still not ruling out the USATF XC Club Finals in December. We reassess in a week and in the mean time, I can get back into swimming for the next couple weeks to help maintain my fitness.
And for those of you that have been DYING to say, "I told you so!!"... OK, have your glory now... Yes, quite possibly ONE contributing factor in this has been my running in the Vibram Five-Fingers. To my defense, I'll say that I have NEVER felt better about my running -at least until I woke up the other morning. That is total honesty here. Those Five-Fingers have cleared up some major, long time issues of mine... and only in a matter of a few weeks. But for now, as much as I love those shoes, I admit... I might have pushed the envelope just a little too much for post-marathon running.
Disclosure: This is the first time I'm actually admitting on this blog to my Five-Finger running - I've been doing some of my easier runs in them for the last 3 weeks. Including a couple runs the week of the marathon. I'll explain more in another post. First let me get things back to an even keel.
So, I leave with this - Run every run like it's your last run! Enjoy it. You don't need to blow it out, but soak it up. You never know. I learned a good lesson the other day... I did absoultely NOTHING wrong on the run. I never mis-stepped; I never tripped; I never rolled an ankle; didn't kick anything... NOTHING. I felt great until the very end. And yet, I wound up pissing off something somewhere along the miles.
The trials of miles... and the miles of trials!
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