Plantar Fasciitis- Deluxe Edition
You know that scene from Willy Wonka where they get on the boat for a lovely, peaceful journey but then it gets more and more crazy and terrifying, until finally Veruca Salt’s father says “Wonka! This has gone far enough!” Wonka: “Quite right sir- STOP THE BOAT!” That’s they way I feel about my foot. It started as a simple pain on the bottom of my foot and gradually the situation took on a life of its own. The pain was in an unusual place, the bottom of my foot towards the outside of my heel, but lacking any other diagnosis my doctor and I agreed to call it plantar fasciitis. It was also discovered that I had a bone spur on the heel- well, now that you mention it, it does feel like there’s a marble embedded in the bottom of that foot. The pain on the side of my foot was attributed to my stepping down on the outside of that foot (subconsciously) to avoid the bone spur. Fair enough! I took time off from running and embarked on a treatment program that involved shockwave therapy to break up the scar tissue around the bone spur. I tried every home remedy for PF I could find, including stretching, massage, and wearing supportive shoes constantly (even when going to the bathroom in the middle of the night). My foot still hurt, but when I got the doctor’s okay I started running again, just a mile to start with and gradually working my way up to three whole miles, three times a week. Although my foot didn’t hurt while I ran, it still hurt on and off during the day, especially after sitting for any length of time. Getting out of bed in the morning was ridiculous- I had days where I seriously contemplated crawling to the bathroom. The doctor said the shockwave treatments were softening up the area with the bone spur, but I didn’t feel any real difference. I felt like I was stuck- I was afraid to increase my mileage for fear of making my foot worse and none of the therapies I tried at home seemed to make a difference. I was getting to the end of my rope when I listened to Tim Ferriss’s podcast interview with Stefi Cohen. First of all, she’s amazing. I can’t recommend this interview enough. In addition to her other accomplishments (including holding the world record for deadlifting 4.4x her bodyweight) she’s written a book about back pain. She said that pain doesn’t always indicate damage, and something clicked in my brain. There’s no reason to still be having pain in my foot. Whatever damage there was originally has had more than enough time to heal. Research shows that 95% of heel spurs don’t cause any pain. I considered the possibility that the foot pain was something my brain was perceiving out of habit, rather than any lingering injury. I tried stepping down barefoot for the first time in months. At first it felt like I was stepping on a rock. I also noticed that my foot was very tense and couldn’t help rolling to the outside. I took a few minutes to practice stepping down normally without tensing my foot. I also noticed how good it was to actually feel the floor under my foot, after wearing shoes constantly. Then I practiced walking around the room, and after a minute or so couldn’t really feel the bone spur. It’s not like I solved the problem entirely in that moment, and I still have a lot of work to do. But I felt a shift in my mind (and body) about what’s really going on in that foot. Instead of waiting for the pain to go away, I have to train my body- and brain- to move normally again. Meanwhile… Even though my runs have been short, running three miles is so much better than not running at all! I’m can’t wait to start training again. Fun fact: while researching that scene from Willy Wonka to make sure I got the dialogue right, I found out Gene Wilder was the only one who knew what was going to happen on the boat- everyone else just thought they were going for a normal boat ride. No wonder everyone looked so terrified!
Book Review- Running the Dream
For some reason I only seem to read the more obscure Matt Fitzgerald books. I haven’t read 80/20 Running or How Bad Do You Want It, which people constantly refer to and rave about. I did read Iron War, which is the story of the rivalry between Dave Scott and Mark Allen, and the “greatest race ever run,” their epic Ironman race in Kona. I really enjoyed that one (I read it during my brief triathlon phase) and I just finished one of Matt’s newer books, Running the Dream. Running the Dream is the story of Matt’s opportunity to live in Flagstaff for thirteen weeks and train with NAZ Elite, coached by Ben Rosario. Matt was 46 years years old and had a marathon PR of 2:41:29, which he had run seven years prior. Fueled by a sense of unfulfilled potential, Matt reached out to Ben, who invited him to train as a “fake pro-runner” (as Matt put it) for a training cycle leading up to the Chicago marathon. The book describes in detail the lifestyle of a professional runner. Among Matt’s teammates were Steph and Ben Bruce, Matt Llano, Scott Fauble, and Kellyn Taylor. Although Matt was slower than the real elites, he completed the same workouts, had access to the same strength training, PT, sports psychologist, and nutrition advice as his teammates. One of the great things about this book was the closeup look at the NAZ Elite training. NAZ is famous for their transparency (posting workouts online) and community involvement, so nothing Matt reveals is exactly a secret- but it was still interesting. Intertwined in the story is Matt’s own quest for a PR in the marathon. I think many older runners can relate to wondering if they really reached their potential- I feel like I haven’t. For that reason, it’s fun to root for Matt as the book goes along. The last part of the book is his experience in the Chicago marathon and I won’t ruin it by saying what happens, although I knew the outcome before I read the book and still enjoyed it. Along the way Matt sustains a groin injury, and it’s fascinating to read about the approach to injuries at that level (hint: unlike my foot injury which is going on three months now, his was resolved within a week). It also added another layer of anticipation to the outcome of his training (will he or won’t he get his PR?) and as we are all too well aware, training cycles rarely go off without a glitch somewhere. If I had to find something to criticize, I would say that I would have liked a deeper dive into some of the topics. The book is 214 pages so there was definitely room for him to flesh it out a bit more- maybe more details of his training. He probably wrote it to appeal to as many runners as possible- nothing wrong with that- but I’m a running geek and I would have liked to see total miles for each week, along with every workout (he talks about some but not all) and also more exact descriptions of his strength training. But overall I really enjoyed it, and now I have a library hold on his 2007 book, Brain Training for Runners. On my run this morning I listened to the Final Surge podcast where Matt and Ben Rosario talk about the whole experience- it was recorded right after the Chicago marathon and before he wrote the book. It was fun to hear them talk about it right after reading the book. Here I am in a very rare outfit for Florida… hat and gloves! Anyone else like Matt Fitzgerald’s books? He’s written a lot of them!
New Year, New Me!
Well, not exactly- not yet, at least. I’m still getting all my Christmas stuff put away- it’s hard to move on to the New Year when your whole house screams Christmas. And I decorate a LOT, so un-decorating is a big job. Exhibit A: Yep, that’s my bathroom! Or at least it was until today- I’m sure Santa was happy to get his head off my toilet. If this is my bathroom, just imagine what the rest of my house looked like. But it’s all- almost- put away now. Here’s a question! I packed away my Christmas face masks… …and next year when I open this bin will I say “Ugh! Remember last year when we had to wear these ALL THE TIME???” Or will I be pulling them out to wear again? Only time will tell. I’ve decided it’s too hard to set running goals for the year, not knowing what races will look like and also not knowing what my foot will feel like. So I’ve decided to go month-by-month. Here are my January goals, running and otherwise: Continue to run slow, easy miles while actively rehabbing my foot, i.e. building back some strength with single leg exercises, and increasing mobility in my calf muscles. Currently I’m running three days a week- I’d like to increase it to four. Read four books. In 2019 I set myself an ambitious goal to read 50 books. I ended up falling short at 48, but it was still more than I would normally have read. Last year I didn’t set any reading-related goals and only ended up reading 28 books- bleh!!! I really enjoyed my year of reading in 2019, so I’m going to try and replicate that by reading four books a month (if I can sneak a couple more in there and get up to 50 for the year it would be extra-great!) Get seven hours of sleep a night. I know- that doesn’t sound like a very lofty goal, but I’ve been TERRIBLE about sleeping enough lately. I love staying up late, although what I’ve been doing I couldn’t even say (obviously not reading). It got especially bad over the holiday break but now that the kids are starting school again, I have to go to bed earlier. Work on this blog! Obviously. The combination of not running much, plus the distraction of the holidays meant that I really didn’t focus on this blog. I mean, it’s supposed to be a running blog and I’m writing about Santa toilet seats and kittens. Not that those things aren’t fun, but moving forward I’m going to put time and energy into creating more running-related posts. On that subject… Apparently I was running so fast I was just a blur! Ha ha… definitely kidding on that one- I just took a blurry picture. But I ran three miles and it felt great! Onward to great things in January! What do you guys think… will we still be wearing masks this time next year? I hope not!!!
That’s a Wrap!
Another Christmas, come and gone. The “gone” part makes me sad because I hate when it’s over. People close to me have urged me to look on the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s as a continuation of the celebration, and pointed out that in other countries, “Christmastime” doesn’t end until Epiphany (January 6th). I admit I had to google “Epiphany” (I knew the word, but not in the context of Christmas) but am now fully on board with this- it’s still Christmastime! Our actual Christmas Day was really nice. We don’t have family nearby and don’t travel during the holidays anyway, so it was just the four of us as always. Lots of presents!!! I got a couple things from my wishlist… I love this sweatshirt even more than I thought I would! It’s super soft and I love the way it fits. I normally wear an extra small from stores like Gap or Old Navy, but in this sweatshirt the small fits me perfectly. I also got THIS FOOT MASSAGER!!! On the box it says it “Assists in blood circulation and warms the feet.” That’s a really good description- it’s not like it does anything amazingly therapeutic- it just feels good. Last night after everyone else went to bed I enjoyed a nice foot massage while browsing Barnes and Noble website, and ordered Running the Dream by Matt Fitzgerald. I’m excited to read it- I hope it arrives by New Year’s because I have visions of lying on the couch reading on New Year’s Day. Since it’s still Christmas(time) we have more plans for cookie baking, and a fun New Year’s Eve (again, just the four of us). There will even be more presents, because my daughter’s birthday is Wednesday. Ugh, poor kid. December 30th is one of the worst days for a birthday. And poor me, because I really used all my cunning to come up with Christmas presents for her- buying for an almost-twelve-year-old who isn’t interested in clothes, makeup, or anything girl-y is really tough. Some kind of magic is going to occur between now and Wednesday, because she WILL have presents to open on her birthday! Somehow I always manage it. Fitness-wise, I’m pleased to say I did NOT miss either of my strength sessions this week! I had plenty of excuses to skip them, but decided not to use any of them. The one thing I did skip was my day on the bike- no big loss. I took Christmas Day off, but ran Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. I’ve increased my distance to a whopping two miles (sigh) and my foot is holding steady. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Only five more days until this year is OVER!