Halloween Countdown and November Goals
Well, four more days! I love all holidays, and Halloween is a good one. About half the people in our neighborhood do it up big, and the other half don’t give out candy at all. Somehow it’s an unspoken rule that if you don’t put up any Halloween decorations, you are not participating, and everyone skips your house. The people who do give out candy go all out, with lots of decorations, and a couple people put together a haunted house in their garage. Since we do give out candy, I do my best with outdoor Halloween decorations. This year, however, I discovered that some of my old ones no longer worked, like my giant light-up spider who sat in our bushes, and the string of ghosts that went in a palm tree. All I had were some orange and purple lights to string through the bushes, and some skulls for the other palm. I did the best I could, but everything seemed a little messy and haphazard. My husband came out to look at it and said “Well… Halloween is supposed to be weird.” Yes! Halloween is supposed to be weird- let’s go with that. Since Halloween is four days away, that means November is almost here, and I have some big goals! The first- and biggest- is that I’ve decided to join San for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month.) The challenge is to post 30 blog posts in 30 days, starting November 1st. I though, “Why not? There’s nothing else going on in November.” Ha ha… just kidding on that part. I almost didn’t do it because there’s so much going on next month… but I’ve been wanting a challenge, and I’m hoping it will be the extra thing that helps everything else fall into place. We’ll see! I know… who has time to read blog posts every single day? I feel like I can barely keep up with blogs as it is. I don’t expect anyone to read every post. My plan is to continue my usual posting schedule of Sunday (the Weekly Rundown), Wednesday, and Friday, and put all the fun running things in those posts. For the other posts, I’ll title them so that the subject is obvious- if that sounds interesting to you, great. If not- no worries. There may be some meanderings coming up! Another goal for November is to finally, finally run a race. My husband and I registered for a Turkey Trot, and my goal is to actually make it to the starting line! I’m not sure I’ll actually be “racing,” given the low mileage and lack of speed work (not to mention my “difficult foot” situation) but I haven’t run a race in two years, and I would like to be at this one. And the last goal is to do a Peloton yoga class every day for the month of November. This isn’t too much of a stretch (ha, get it- stretch?) because I’ve been doing a class almost every day. But there will be some days here and there where I would normally skip it- no skipping allowed in November! Do you decorate for Halloween? Do you get many trick-or-treaters? What are your goals for November?
Weekly Rundown- Answers and Possibilities
Hello! Welcome to another Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by Kim and Deborah. The big excitement of the week was seeing the podiatrist- I wrote all about it in this post. As you will soon see, the doctor said I can keep running- moderately- while he’s treating my foot. Victory! Here’s how the week played out. Monday I did a 45 minute “Beyond the Pose” yoga flow class on the Peloton app with Denis Morton (if you’re new to these weekly rundowns, it will quickly become apparent that I have one very, very favorite Peloton yoga teacher.) The class description said we would learn more about the concepts, philosophies and other practices of yoga- but I find Denis to be pretty philosophical normally, so this class wasn’t much different than his usual. Tuesday I did a 30 minute power yoga class with Denis in the morning, and then WENT TO THE PODIATRIST. Highlights from that appointment include a diagnosis of plantar fasciitis AND insertional peroneal tendinitis- so THAT’S what the other pain in my foot is- a treatment plan for both with shockwave therapy (he did the first treatment at this appointment) and the eventual plan to get custom made orthotics for my “difficult foot”. He said it was fine to continue running during treatments- keeping runs in the 3-5 mile range. In the afternoon, I went for a three mile run! Normally I’m a morning runner, but I just had that itch to get out this afternoon. It helps that our weather has cooled down the tiniest bit- it was 81 degrees when I went out at 5:00 pm, and that’s about ten degrees cooler than it was at that time a week ago. Wednesday Did a 45 minute “Slow flow” yoga class. I’ve discovered that the power classes are the hardest, with slow flow coming in a close second. You would think “slow” means easy, but actually holding the poses longer can be challenging. Thursday And speaking of challenging… holy crap. I did the hardest power yoga class yet. It was a 45 minute class, and you start off innocently sitting in an easy crossed legged position, stretching each individual finger. Well… I know Denis pretty well now, and when a class starts out that easy and gentle- look out. Before I knew it, we were doing a sequence alternating between Warrior 3 and pistol squats, GAAAAH! The third time through the sequence you actually go from Warrior 3, straight to a pistol squat (drawing your raised rear leg in front of you without touching the floor) then from the pistol squat, all the way down to the mat for a one-legged bridge, then straight back up into a pistol squat, back to Warrior 3. Having trouble following that? Go ahead… check out the class! In the afternoon I did a three mile run. Again- an unusual afternoon run. Like I said, I’m usually a morning runner but I enjoyed these afternoon runs! In this post I talked about how I worked on my cadence for this run, using the Metrotimer app. Friday I was a little sore today, and I suspect it had something to do with pistol squats. I did a 45 minute slow flow class, and it turned out to be a hard one. Or maybe it just felt hard because my legs were sore. Each time through the flow, Denis held a different pose for a minute. First time was high lunge, second time Warrior 2, etc. A minute doesn’t sound long, but it felt long. Good class! Saturday I knew that I wanted to run on Sunday, but also wanted to squeeze in a short run today. I walked for one mile and then ran for one mile. For the first mile of walking, I felt like a dog who’s straining against a leash. When my watch beeped one mile, it’s like someone unsnapped the leash and I bounded forward joyfully. Walking really fast is hard! Running is easier (and more fun.) After work I did a 30 minute yoga flow, focusing on twists. All my yoga classes are on the Peloton app with Denis Morton, and I love the variety. Sunday At my doctor’s recommendation, I limited this run to five miles, but I did a fast one mile walk first, for six miles total. I miss doing a longer Sunday run, but I’m thrilled that I get to run at all, while getting this foot issue treated. Overall I felt so optimistic all week. I’ve been dealing with my foot pain for so long, I felt like I would have it forever. I know it will take some time, but I finally feel like it’s going to be healed, and am hoping that getting orthotics will finally put an end to the cycle of injuries I’ve been in. I’m envisioning a future full of running adventures! How was your week? Are you enjoying fall weather? – Still warm here… hoping for a true cooldown soon!
Running Cadence- It’s Important!
Hello and welcome to foot-free Friday! What the heck is that, you ask? Well, in my last post I went into great detail about my visit to the podiatrist, his diagnosis, upcoming treatment, and even included some medical diagrams! After all that, I promised to talk about something OTHER THAN my foot today. And I am! But first… I’ll just mention that the doctor said I could run during treatment, as long as I don’t go too far (he recommended 3-5 miles.) I also can’t run too fast- he didn’t say that, but my foot has said it, repeatedly. So… I can’t work on distance or speed- seems like the perfect time to work on… FORM. Working on running form is tricky. When things are going well, I feel invincible and that my form must be perfect (eye roll.) When I get injured, I realize my form needs work but it’s impossible to work on form when you can’t run. Now that I’m in this no-man’s land of not injured but not really well either, it seems like the perfect time. Rewind to August when I drove my son to college. One morning I ran on the hotel treadmill, which was positioned right in front of a mirror. This was HIGHLY INSTRUCTIVE. I already knew my feet cross over my midline in front of me, which is not good. As I ran on the treadmill, it was obvious they were crossing over. First I tried to tell myself “don’t cross over.” Not surprisingly, this did nothing. I knew that our minds don’t respond well to negative commands. So then I tried thinking “knees straight ahead.” Interestingly, this also had NO EFFECT. I would imagine that by trying to run with my knees straight ahead, I was managing to open up my hips a little (because it certainly felt like my feet were landing far apart) but in reality, it wasn’t enough to be visible. Since I was on the treadmill, I played around with pace (as one does) and discovered that increasing my pace did help a little. It was when I increased my cadence that I could finally see a difference in my form- my knees were pointing a little straighter ahead and my feet were crossing over a little less. Ever since then, I’ve paid more attention to my cadence. Your running cadence is simply the number of times your feet hit the ground in a given interval. The “ideal” cadence people shoot for is usually 180 steps per minute, although of course like anything else, there can be individual variations. This article does a good job of explaining cadence. “The quicker your stride rate, the ‘lighter’ your stride. By reducing your ground contact time, you are minimizing the amount of work your body needs to do for each foot strike, thereby reducing your risk of running injuries over time.” I would add that, the quicker your stride rate, the less time you have to make extraneous movements, like crossing over the midline. It forces your body to be efficient. The best way to work on cadence is to run to an actual beat, so I downloaded the free MetroTimer app on my phone. In Chi Running, Danny Dreyer recommends running with three steps per beat. In other words, if your goal is to run 180 steps per minute, you set the metronome to 60. That way you land right-left-right on one beat, and left-right-left on the next beat. You don’t want to land on the same foot every time there’s a beat, because you might subconsciously start to land more heavily on that side. Like any kind of work, you don’t want to go too crazy with it. You risk injury if you change too much all at once. It’s usually recommended to run short intervals at a slightly faster cadence than your norm. 56 was good for me- that would be a cadence of 168, and then every week or so you increase it slightly. So that’s what I’ve been up to! Inserting short intervals of cadence work into my runs. Do you ever work on cadence? Ever run with a metronome?
A Difficult Foot
FINALLY!!! I saw the podiatrist and got some information that actually makes sense. First off, I obviously have plantar fasciitis. I think everyone has agreed with that since day one. But the real question I had- and the reason I asked for the MRI- was the pain I have on the bottom lateral edge of my foot. He put his finger immediately on the exact spot, and told me it’s peroneal tendinitis. Ah… we meet again. Peroneal tendinitis has the dubious distinction of being the very first running injury I ever had, when I was twenty years old. The reason I didn’t recognize it this time is that I feel it in a different place. Let’s look at this picture… You can see where the peroneus longus and brevis tendons run along the outside of the foot. Where these are colored red is where tendinitis pain usually occurs, just under the ankle. That’s where mine was so painful years ago, but it doesn’t hurt there at all now. See how the peroneus longus tucks under the foot? THAT’S where my pain is. It attaches to the bone on the bottom of the foot, and therefore is considered “insertional tendinitis.” After looking at the MRI, the doctor told me I have a “difficult foot.” (Oh really? I hadn’t noticed.) He said I have an extremely high arch, and also that my foot turns in a little, which causes me to over supinate. It’s incredible to me that he was able to tell that without even seeing me walk, because I am pigeon toed on that left side- I was born that way. I actually had a night brace when I was a baby, and then a brace I wore all the time in first grade, which forced my feet to turn out. Ugh… I hated that brace SO MUCH. It went around my waist, then had two bands that went down the outside of each leg, attaching to sturdy orthopedic shoes. Luckily I was too young to realize I looked like a total dork- what I hated is that it was so uncomfortable. It forced my feet into a turned-out position, and every once in a while it was adjusted to turn out even more. Whenever it was adjusted, I could hardly walk at first. Eventually the problem was corrected as much as possible. But my left foot still turns in. I want to say this picture makes it look worse than it really is- I did pick a shot where it’s especially prominent… but the camera doesn’t lie, right? Backtrack to the peroneal tendinitis when I was twenty… the podiatrist I went to back then made me some custom orthotics, which I wore for years and years. Somewhere along the way I stopped using them… I think after I had my kids my feet changed, and those orthotics were no longer comfortable. I decided that I didn’t really need them. I bought into the theory that most people don’t need orthotics, and that injuries should be addressed by strength training and focusing on correct running form. I thought people should just run the way they run naturally, and make it work. Well, I guess it’s not working for me. My doctor today told me that I am definitely one of those people who truly needs orthotics, and they need to be custom-made. Generic over-the-counter orthotics are made for people who over pronate, and I have the opposite problem. As he was explaining what the orthotic would do, he was holding my foot in a neutral position and showing me where the support would be… and just having him do that felt so good. Yes! Give me orthotics immediately!!! But, he said he wants to heal up the foot first, then fit me for orthotics. He wanted to do shockwave therapy. I told him my old doctor already tried that and he said his shockwave machine is the real thing (WHAT? My old doctor had a fake one???) and that he’s had a 100% success rate with it. AND, he said he could treat the plantar fasciitis and insertion of the peroneal tendon in the same session. So I had the first (of four) shockwave sessions today. Yes, it hurt, but that’s okay- when does that foot not hurt? But here’s the best part- I asked him if I could run and he was almost surprised by the question. He was like “Oh yes- running is great!” Ha ha, well, I think we agree on just about everything. He did caution not to run too far- but my foot already lets me know when it’s too much, so there’s no danger there. I’m feeling really good about this! I know it’s going to take a while. I have three more shockwave sessions, scheduled one week apart. Then I have to be fitted for orthotics, and then I have to get used to them. But I’m optimistic that I’m on the right track. I really want to break out of this continuous cycle of injuries and do some fun things with my running. Onward! Tune in on Friday where I promise, I will not talk about my foot at all! I think we all need a new subject, right? Have you ever worn orthotics?