Training for 2/29/12

Happy Leap Day!

I was watching “CBS This Morning,” and they did a little piece on Leap Day. Right after it aired, one of the co-anchors, Gayle King, said she was surprised to learn from the piece that Leap Year came about because one of Earth’s revolutions around the sun is actually 365 and 1/4 days, so they tack together those four extra quarters and make an extra day every four years. I thought everyone knew that. I feel like I knew that in elementary school. What did she think lead to Leap Year before today? Did she think someone just felt bad for February so they threw it a bone every few years and gave it another day?

I was happy to see they got Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain that apparently obscure piece of knowledge. He’s an astrophysicist who once worked at the University of Maryland, among other places. I took a lot of astronomy classes at Maryland, and we would often watch clips in class of episodes of PBS’ “Nova scienceNOW,” which he hosted, and he would get so hopped up about the dumbest shit on that show. We all got a kick out of him. He wasn’t nearly as animated about Leap Day today though.

Anyway… I did my training for the day this morning. Ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weight training upstairs, followed by barefoot exercises and stretching downstairs.

And, since today is the last day of the month, I must write out my monthly summary.

I don’t feel like typing out the mileage totals by week, because a few of them were 0. My total mileage for the month was 31.3 miles, 199 fewer than January!

But, on the bright side, six of those miles came in the last three days, which means I’m running again. I also rode 61 miles on my bike, the most action that thing’s seen in almost two years.

I might have mentioned this before, but I’m signed up for two races in March, the Towne Bank 8K on the 17th, and the Shamrock Marathon the day after that. Those are my only real plans for the month, and I’m still not sure if the marathon is going to happen or not.

I got a New Balance catalog in the mail a couple of days ago, and Clark was asking which shoes I want, since my birthday is coming up in a month. I haven’t bought a new pair of running shoes since last July. I’ve been holding out for two pairs specifically, and they’re both finally available.

New Balance Minimus Zero Road:

New Balance WT110 (trail shoes):

I would like both pairs in those exact colors, size 8.5 B, please.

Training for 2/28/12

This morning, I did something I haven’t done in almost a month — I ran with Pepper.

Crazy, I know! Until a month ago, we were regularly running two to four days a week. Our last run together was a 3-miler on the trail Jan. 29. Then I started leaving him home because it looked like the cold ground was irritating his feet. A few days after that, I started leaving myself  home because something was irritating my right foot.

But today, I wanted to try another trail run since Sunday’s had been successful, so I took Pepper with me.

Sunday’s run was awkward and slow because I was worried about overworking my foot too soon. Today’s was not slow at all, because Pepper doesn’t give a shit about my foot.

It took Pepper a little while to get all of the pee out of his system, sniff everything and find a suitable stick to carry in his mouth, but once he’d done all that, he took off. It felt good to run hard again, and I figured it was a short enough run it wouldn’t hurt, so I just tried to keep up.

It was really an enjoyable run. I have to admit what was once an easy run at Pepper’s pace was quite a bit tougher today, but it has been almost a month since I could run right, so I’m not surprised.

At home, I did some stretching and iced my foot.

Last night, I did all my push-ups, ab exercises, invisible chair-sitting, weight training and barefoot exercises upstairs. I missed the first couple of laps of the Daytona 500, which finally started at 7 p.m. When I came downstairs, Clark said my “boy” had already wrecked. I said, “What? Bobby already wrecked?” And he said no, Jimmie Johnson had.

Hehe. My arch nemesis finished 42nd last night. And then not long after that, my former arch nemesis, Jeff Gordon, who I still pretend to hate on out of nostalgia and because he’s Clark’s favorite driver, blew up his engine, and finished 40th. The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season was already off to a great start.

I was struggling to stay awake for the end of the race. Then, 40 laps from the end, something on Juan Pablo Montoya’s car broke as he was driving past a couple of safety trucks under caution, and the car shot straight into a dryer, powered by a jet engine, being dragged behind one of the trucks. There was an immediate fireball, as something ignited the 200 gallons of jet fuel powering the engine.

It was one of the most bizarre freak accidents I’ve ever seen. The entire track was engulfed in flame from the outside retaining wall to the apron. Montoya’s car was destroyed by the impact and then toasted to a crisp. He and the guy driving the safety truck were both OK though.

It took them two hours to clean up the fuel and make sure the track surface was still OK to race on. By that time I was fast asleep, sadly. I missed the end. Matt Kenseth won and Bobby started the season with a 14th place finish, mostly because so many cars got taken out in two big wrecks in the final laps, haha. Whatever. A decent finish is a decent finish.

Training for 2/27/12

I’m back! And I feel like a normal person again!

Last week was a mixed bag. On top of the will-it-or-won’t-it-heal drama with my right foot, I got this weird infection/rash thing on my back that made the entire left side simultaneously itch, burn and feel extremely sore. At least I was off work though, burning up some paid time off I would have lost otherwise.

But today, all of that is behind me and, except for a slight (sugar) hangover, I feel pretty good today. I don’t even mind being at work.

The back thing started a week ago. I noticed an itchy spot on my back, under my bra strap. I thought it was a scrape, but when I looked at it in the mirror, it was actually a few little bumps. Over the next couple of days, the bumps increased to seven, but they all stayed right in that same spot under my bra strap. However, every muscle on that side of my back hurt like hell for a few days. Raising my left arm was pretty painful by Saturday.

My mom was convinced I had a staph infection, even though I had no fever or headaches or anything, and called me a few times to politely insist I go see a doctor. I kept putting it off by promising her I would go if I started running a fever. Finally, yesterday, it felt a lot less sore, and this morning, the muscle soreness is completely gone and it’s just a little itchy. The bumps are drying up and fading.

I’ll never know what that was, but I’m glad it’s on its way out.

Now, the foot. Last Tuesday, I rode my bike to the trail, planning to run some short intervals but secretly hoping my foot pain had magically disappeared and I could run the whole 3-mile course. That didn’t happen. The foot got extremely sore after about 30 seconds of running, so I walked the majority of the trail and ran a few very short and kinda painful intervals. Then I rode my bike back home and spent the rest of the day lounging about. The foot still hurt to walk on that night.

Wednesday morning, I had pretty much decided I was definitely deferring my Shamrock Marathon entry to next year based on the previous day’s run. I even told Clark I had decided to defer. If I had gone to work last Wednesday, I would have done it online.

But I didn’t go to work of course. I did my strength training upstairs, and that afternoon, I went to my first yoga class, a hot yoga class in Lewes. It was a 90-minute class held in a 105-degree room.

I got there early. I saw a couple of people already lying on their mats in the studio, so I decided to join them so I could start getting used to the heat.

I opened that door and stepped into a wall of flame! I immediately doubted  my ability to get through the class. But I laid out my mat and then laid on my back, keeping completely still for 20 minutes before the class started. I started to think maybe I could do this after all.

Then the teacher came in and started leading us through some warm up poses and breathing exercises. As soon as I had to start moving, I started pouring sweat! We got through the warm up and started doing a series of standing balance poses, and then some lying and seated poses. Any time I had to grip my foot or leg or something, my fingers would practically fly off, I was so drenched in sweat.

The worst was a couple of warrior poses, which required standing in a wide stance. By the time we got to those, my mat was so saturated, it was all I could do to keep from slipping in the sweat puddle, haha.

But, I’m proud to say I got through the whole thing. There were a few poses I had to stop and hold at a less advanced point in the progression, but for the most part, I held my own, and the teacher only had to make one slight correction to my form the entire time. I really enjoyed the class. I can’t imagine doing that on a regular basis, and Lewes is way too far out of my way to do so anyway, but I’ll probably try another class sometime.

After nearly two hours in that room, the heat was actually feeling good to me, and the 70-degree lobby felt like a freezer. I took a shower, drove to Rehoboth, got some lunch and walked on the beach a little. That night, I went to my friend Julie’s house for dinner.

Thursday morning, my foot felt better than it had in a few weeks. I did a few little test hops on it and while it didn’t feel totally normal, it was definitely losing intensity. I decided to keep letting it rest, and just rode my bike about 14.5 miles. I went over to my parents’ house that afternoon to watch the Gatorade Duel qualifying races, which were almost as entertaining as the Bud Shootout the Saturday before.

Friday, I just did some push-ups and stretching in the morning, and then I went to Easton to go to lunch with my sister. We went to In Japan and got sushi, and then we went to the Amish market and finally to Target. Again, my foot just kept feeling better.

Saturday, I thought about riding my bike out to the trail and giving running another shot, but the wind was absolutely ridiculous. It was really whipping around out there. So I just did my little yoga DVD and then cleaned the house around watching the Nationwide Series race instead. The Nationwide race was also really good, so I was really looking forward to the Daytona 500 the next day. Clark and I went to Bethany Blues, a barbecue restaurant with live music, that night and had dinner thanks to a $50 gift certificate I won in a 5K last fall.

Yesterday, I woke up really eager to try running again on the trail. I was planning to ride the bike out there. But when I stepped outside, it was still annoyingly windy, so I just drove my car to the trail.

I got to the trailhead and started a little jog, expecting that familiar shooting pain just under my right ankle every time I stepped off or landed on that foot. But it didn’t happen!

I ran three miles! It was slow and awkward, but I ran!

My poor right foot was pretty worn out by the end of that run though. At least it wasn’t sore.

When I got home, I did ride the bike around the 5.5-mile loop, and the wind was bad enough I was really glad I hadn’t ridden it for the 12-mile round trip to the trail and back. I did some stretching and foam rolling, and iced my right foot. I could walk totally normal yesterday, which made me happy, because I was worrying the whole time I was running about trying to run too much too soon and reinjuring the foot.

Clark and I bought a bunch of stuff from the Walmart bakery, as we had agreed to bring dessert for our friend Mike’s Daytona 500 party. Like I said, I was really looking forward to this race. We got over to his house, only to find it was pouring rain in Daytona.

It rained there all day. They finally announced the race was postponed to today. It’s the first time in the 54 years they’ve held this race they had to postpone it. Stupid weather. What a letdown.

We hung out there all afternoon, eating the way too many cookies and mini cupcakes Clark had bought from the bakery. In the evening, we went to my parents’ house for a birthday dinner for my older sister, topped off with more sugar, my mom’s icebox cake and ice cream.

Around 2 a.m., I woke up with a terrible stomachache. Big surprise! It was miserable. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, where it fortunately digested quickly, because otherwise I was pretty sure I was going to puke.

This morning, I still didn’t feel 100 percent awesome when I woke up (although my foot did!) so I decided to hold off on the weight training until tonight when I get home from work. Running with a stomachache makes me feel better; weight training with one makes me feel worse.

So where does this leave me in regards to Shamrock? I think the 8K on Saturday morning is a definite go. I am positive my foot will be strong enough for about 5 miles at what will most likely be a really easy pace, because I’ll probably run it with my friends who are also signed up for the marathon the following morning and will therefore be running it as a shakeout run.

The marathon is still a question though. Right now I’m leaning toward deferring. Based on how tired my foot was after three measly miles yesterday, I don’t think 26.2 will be a good idea. But, my foot made a ton of forward progress just in the five days between last Tuesday and yesterday, so who knows? I still have until March 9 to make a decision.

Training for 2/20/12

This is the only day I have to work this week, so this will be the only blog post until next Monday.

My foot is still bugging me a little. I have not attempted a run in nearly two weeks.

I was off Friday. I just did my push-ups for the day and some yoga. The rest of the day was spent reading the second half of a 900-page book. I had gotten through the first half over the last two weeks, but with an entire empty day and no one around but Pepper, I just couldn’t make myself put the thing down until it was done. If you’re interested, I was reading “I Know This Much Is True” by Wally Lamb. His debut novel, “She’s Come Undone,” is one of my all-time favorite books; I’ve read it at least five times. I was glad I liked this one just as much.

Saturday, I rode my bike on my longest ride yet, a little more than 17 miles. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as a 17-mile run, but it was better than nothing. My butt was killing me when I got off that bike though. I need a gel seat or something.

That night, I had to cover the Preston fire company’s awards banquet, but I was home in time to watch the second segment of the Budweiser Shootout. It was actually a really exciting race to watch. Best of all, Jimmie Johnson wrecked. It’s a non-points race and therefore doesn’t count toward the championship, but it’s still a good sign for things to come, I hope.

Sunday, I just did my yoga, and then we watched Daytona 500 qualifying. My brother thinks Danica Patrick is going to finish higher in the points standings than Bobby this year, even though she’s only running 10 races and Bobby’s running the full schedule, haha. Though the qualifying session yesterday only set the front row (the rest of the field will be set based on how they finish in the Gatorade Duel this Thursday), she ran a faster qualifying lap than Bobby. Two seconds after Bobby’s lap, I got a text from my brother: “Danica – 1  bobby – 0.” And so it begins.

This morning, I did my push-ups, ab exercises, invisible chair-sitting and weight training.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to ride my bike out to the cross country trail and walk the trail with some short run intervals thrown in, just to see how things go. Wednesday I’ll do my strength training. Thursday, I’ll either just go on a long bike ride or a shorter bike ride/short run, depending on what happens tomorrow. I’m itching to get back to running, even just a little. My foot still doesn’t feel normal, but it definitely feels better. I’ll do some more strength training Friday, and then a longer bike ride and possible short run Saturday.

We had some snow last night, but the rest of the week is supposed to be pretty nice, so I should have some good weather for my time off.

Training for 2/16/12

This morning, I put some air in my bike’s tires and rode it a little farther today, around the 7.2-mile loop.

At home, I heated my foot, did some stretches and then iced it.

I have some time off to burn before my hiring anniversary next weekend, so I’m taking off tomorrow and four days next week. I have no idea how I’m going to entertain myself. The Gatorade Duel (Daytona 500 qualifying race) is next Thursday, so at least that afternoon is accounted for. There will probably be some long bike rides in my immediate future.

Training for 2/15/12

Soooo… I think I freaked out and jumped to conclusions yesterday on the whole stress fracture thing. I tend to go straight to worst-case scenarios, and then I have to talk myself down from ledges.

My foot is by no means pain-free, but this morning, the pain had moved from the top of the foot back to the original spot, under the ankle, like where it was when I thought I had peroneal tendinitis and was instead treated for a joint imbalance. I remember my chiropractor saying something about how he wouldn’t adjust the cuboid bone in my foot Monday, when I showed him the bruise that had formed over it since my first appointment last Friday.

It also doesn’t hurt as bad to hop on that one foot today, which has been my litmus test for the past couple of weeks, since this whole thing started. It still hurts, just not as bad.

So this morning, I stayed off the roads and just did my abs, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weight lifting.

At this point, I don’t think I’m going to have to defer Shamrock. I think most of the rest of February, and therefore the last couple of weeks of hard training, are still out, so I’ve come to the realization I’m probably going to have to adjust my goals for Shamrock. Sub-3:30 isn’t going to happen this time around; I probably won’t even PR. But it’s no big deal.

I’ve finished three marathons already. Unlike two years ago, when I tried to push through training for my first even after I got injured, I don’t really have anything to prove to myself here. I know I can run a marathon. I’m more concerned about taking care of this foot and being able to enjoy the experience than hitting a time goal.

Without the pressure of keeping to a plan, I might even have time to stop and drink a beer with those college kids at the unofficial aid station at the entrance and exit of the military station, haha. They looked like they were having a good time last year, but I was too worried about sub-4.

Yesterday, of course, was Valentine’s Day. We got a card from my Aunt Helen. (Well, actually it was “from” Pepper.) That woman loves to shop for greeting cards. She will go to as many stores as necessary to find that perfect card, and she found a great one.

This was the front of the card:

Look like anyone you know?

I don’t know how, but she found the one Valentine’s Day card in the whole world that had a weimaraner on it.

By the way, the inside of the card said, “But I ate it.” And the back of the card said, “The vet said I needed more LOVE in my diet.”

Speaking of Pepper, I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. The last time I brought him to work with me, he was getting pretty impatient by the end of the day. I made him wait just a little longer to leave so I could take pictures of him, because the faces he was making were cracking me up.

Can't. Take. Another. Minute!

It was funny because it’s probably just his impression of what I looked like by that time of day.

Training for 2/14/12

This morning I went for a short bike ride, just a lap around the 4.5-mile loop. The tires desperately need air and I didn’t have time to hook up the air compressor, so I didn’t go too far. I did some foam rolling and stretching, and iced my foot at home.

I cancelled Friday’s appointment with the chiropractor. I don’t think I’m getting anything out of it. I’ve been twice and he hasn’t made much of an effort to actually diagnose the problem. Besides, I’m pretty confident I’ve got a stress fracture, based on what I’m feeling, and I don’t think cracking joints is going to help it.

I also don’t feel like paying $45 to sit through another sales pitch for his orthotics and another lecture on why my shoes suck.

Based on what I’ve been reading about stress fractures, I’m not that shocked I finally got one, honestly, if that’s what this is. And it’s not my shoes’ fault. It’s my fault. I’ve been really hard headed about taking rest days for quite a while now. Since resting a few days after the Steamtown Marathon in October, I took a total of three rest days in the three and a half months before my foot started protesting. And one of those was only because it was Christmas.

Since Steamtown, I did the last several weeks of an advanced half marathon training plan, with several short races thrown in, ran a huge PR in the half, took one day off and then jumped into the most advanced marathon training plan Hal Higdon offers. Even that plan had Fridays as days off, but I tweaked it to make Friday a pace run (usually following a tempo run the day before) so Saturday could be my long run day, and Sundays were trail runs. Then Monday came around and I’d start all over again.

I’ve noticed my pace dropping off in track interval workouts and tempo runs since December. There were even a couple of tempo runs I either cut short or scrapped altogether. I felt tired a lot, but I was just chalking it up to getting into the highest mileage of the training plan.

The 20-miler during which I first felt that tweak in my right foot was at the end of a roughly 75-mile week, and it had only been six days since a 19-miler.

From stressfracturefoot.org:

“Muscle fatigue and over exertion are key factors which can contribute to the formation of small fractures in the bone. Over long exercise sessions, and when frequent exercise is undertaken without a suitable rest period, the muscles of the feet get fatigued and do not respond adequately. Without the musculature, tendons and ligaments working at full capacity the bones of the foot become subjected to unnatural pressures and repeated force can lead to fractures developing. The fractures need not be due to a heavy footfall and can be triggered by the most innocuous of landings.”

I am an idiot. When this foot heals and I can run regularly again, I promise to take some time off.

I don’t have much of a plan right now, beyond “don’t run.” My shitty insurance is making me hesitant to go see any other doctors since I’d have to pay out of pocket, especially after I pretty much just wasted all that money on the chiropractor. I called an urgent care clinic to see what it would cost me just to get an X-ray, and it would be $250. That would at least include any casts or splints they thought would help, but I wouldn’t get much more than a possible diagnosis out of it. I’m sure they’d just write me a referral for a physical therapist I couldn’t afford to go to and send me on my way.

I have no idea what this means for Shamrock. Well, I have an idea, but I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to that. I have until March 9 to defer my entry to next year’s race.

At least I’m not registered for any other races after Shamrock until September.

Whatever shape my foot is in by March, I’m still planning on going to Virginia Beach, whether I run the races or not. There’s a big group of Runner’s World people meeting there and I can still enjoy the weekend. I will not hobble to another DNF and set back my recovery by months. I would like to think I’m a little smarter now than I was two years ago.

Training for 2/13/12

This weekend sucked. My foot never felt right while walking, so I didn’t risk trying to run on it at all. Plus it was cold and extremely windy, so I didn’t want to leave the couch to go for a bike ride or even a walk on the trail or anything.

Saturday, I did some yoga and stretching exercises. That night, I went to Salisbury with my friend Julie, and we had dinner at the Olive Garden and saw “The Woman in Black,” which scared the shit out of both of us. Sunday, I did literally nothing, except watch TV and polish off two boxes of Girl Scout cookies, until about 6:30 p.m., when Clark finally convinced me to put on something other than sweatpants so we could get dinner somewhere.

This morning, I did all my push-ups, ab exercises, invisible chair-sitting and weight lifting, then rolled out and iced my foot (where I noticed a bruise on top of it), before going to the chiropractor for my second visit.

He was surprised to see the bruise but didn’t seem too worried to hear my foot hadn’t really responded to the first adjustment last Friday. He did some more adjusting of my lower back, hips, legs and feet.

I brought my running shoes, as requested, and he showed me every little thing that was wrong with them, which was just about everything. The heel wasn’t stiff enough, they bent too much, they weren’t straight enough (?), blah blah blah.

I just flat-out do not agree with anything he was saying, based solely on my personal experiences over the last year and a half, and I couldn’t just sit there and listen to him bad-mouth my shoes. I pointed out that I ran a marathon last March in neutral cushioning shoes, like the ones he thinks I should be running in, and after the race, my toes were cramping and I had blisters on both feet. Then I ran my most recent marathon — 20 minutes faster, no less — in my Minimuses and had no blisters or cramping on either foot. Explain that one to me.

He said something like, “Well, it feels good to eat McDonald’s doesn’t it?” (Not really. Fast food sits in my stomach like a brick.) “But eventually you’re going to wind up having a heart attack.”

His theory is the Minimuses are just allowing my feet to work incorrectly, so it feels right to me, instead of making my feet work correctly, like a pair of Brooks Ghosts or Glycerins.

By the way, while I was sitting in the waiting room, I saw two patients wearing running shoes, and they were both wearing the same pair of Brooks. It could have just been coincidence, but I feel like it wasn’t.

And the fact the office makes custom orthotics for $150 was also brought up. I asked if anyone in the world has “good feet.” Is there anyone whose feet can just go out and run, in his opinion, or do we all have these shitty feet that need to be corrected with regular adjustments and fancy shoes and orthotics?

He gave me a non-answer about how we have so many joints in our feet, he could find a couple that need “fixing” on anyone.

I’d heard enough about shoes at that point, because it doesn’t matter what I’m wearing, I can’t run on my foot right now. So I asked what I should expect from my foot after this latest adjustment.

If it doesn’t respond to this second treatment, or the third one scheduled for this Friday, then he’ll consider the possibility it might be something else… like a goddamned stress fracture. If that is the case, the March marathon is pretty much out. Those have to rest for weeks. Running on a stress fracture is about as dumb as you can get, because there’s a good chance you’ll eventually break the bone completely.

I didn’t leave the office feeling any better than when I got there. I guess I just have to wait and see how the foot feels over the next few days, and see what happens at my next appointment.

Training for 2/10/12

This morning, Clark and I got up really early to scrub down some things in the house to get ready for an appraisal. We meant to do it last night, but we both decided to sleep instead.

We’re trying to refinance the house, to get a better interest rate and a much shorter loan. If the appraisal comes in at the right price, we’ll be good to go. So it was worth losing a couple hours of sleep this morning to clean up as much damage in the utility room as possible, among other things.

The appraiser got to our house a little while after Clark left for work. The whole time he was taking measurements outside, Pepper stood inside and barked his head off at him. As soon as the guy came in the house to take pictures, Pepper got a lot less bold. He mostly left the guy alone, and only boofed at him under his breath when the guy was most likely out of earshot, haha.

After the appraiser left, I went to my first appointment with the chiropractor.

My doctor is very friendly and talkative. He’s even run a few half marathons, so he’s not as anti-running as my physical therapist was, which is nice. He said he doesn’t run long distance anymore because it’s hard to put on muscle. He did have some pretty big guns.

Anyway, he pushed and pulled and poked all over my feet. He didn’t think the pain is being caused by the peroneal tendon, as I’d thought, but rather a joint imbalance. At least I think I caught that. He didn’t think the Graston Technique will be needed in my case. I know I heard that.

Then he put me on a table to adjust me.

It was weird. He said my right leg was shorter than the left, not naturally but because something was out of whack, so he dug his elbow into a couple spots on my back, checked my legs again and said they were even now.

The weirdest was when he asked me to hold out my arms in front of me so he could test their strength by pressing down on them while I tried to hold them up. My right arm barely moved; I couldn’t keep my left arm up to save my life. So he had me sit on the table, and he wrapped one arm around me and dug into some spot near my left shoulder on my back with his other elbow. Pop, pop, pop. I stood up so he could do the strength test again, and that time, my left arm held just as steady as my right.

The only time I yelped a little was when he cracked all the toes on my right foot to adjust them. He said it’s probably a good thing I don’t need Graston treatment if that hurt.

After I was nice and adjusted, one of the assistants put me on another table face down, and hooked up some electrodes to my back and near my right ankle. I stayed there for 10 minutes.

Of course, the chiropractor wanted to talk about biomechanics and shoes. He is not a fan of the barefoot and minimalist movement, and advised me to run in more supportive neutral shoes, like Brooks Ghosts. I was just going to smile and nod and never mention my beloved Minimuses. But then he asked me to bring in my running shoes to my next appointment. I warned him he’s not going to like them. They’re not true minimalist shoes, but they didn’t have much support to begin with, and after more than 1,000 miles, what they did have is long gone.

I have two appointments for next week, one for first thing Monday morning and another for Friday morning. Depending on how things go Monday, I might be done and not need to go Friday.

He said I could try a short run this weekend, but to stop if I could still feel pain, of course. So maybe I’ll take Pepper to the trail sometime this weekend.

I don’t really have any other plans this weekend right now.

Training for 2/9/12

This morning, I slept in and just did some yoga before going to work. I would have much rather gotten up early and run the 50-minute tempo run that was on the schedule, but I don’t think my right foot would have been on board with that.

Yesterday, I posted a mopey blog about my troublesome foot on Runner’s World, and it turns out a lot of my friends there have dealt with peroneal tendinitis and had some good advice for getting rid of it. One guy suggested getting it treated by a chiropractor who knows the Graston Technique. Google explained that involves using stainless steel instruments to treat areas exhibiting soft tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation. Apparently it’s a little painful (or just annoying, because one girl who’d had it done on her IT bands said she could hear a constant crunching sound as her physical therapist did it), but effective.

So I emailed a chiropractor in Salisbury who claimed to know that treatment. He called me back and I explained what was going on with my foot. I also told him cost was an issue because my crappy insurance definitely wouldn’t be covering any of it.

I have an appointment for an evaluation and initial treatment tomorrow morning. Thanks to my insurance, I’m considered a “hardship patient,” and they’re only charging me $45 per office visit, instead of the $400 they would charge insurance. It should only take two or three visits at the most to correct.

While I’m annoyed I’m headed back to a professional to correct a running injury, I’m proud of myself for being a little smarter about it this time and not waiting so long after I started experiencing pain, instead of letting it get to the point the IT band syndrome got to.

I had been considering running the Tim Kennard 10-Mile River Run on March 4, like I did last year, but I’m not going to now. First, I know if I run that race, I’ll want to PR, and it’s too close to the marathon to  run a race that long and risk aggravating the foot again. Second, I’m trying to cut down on running expenses this year, mostly race fees, and it just so happens the registration fee is $45, the same cost as a visit to the chiropractor. So my current 10-mile PR will live a little longer.