I took a very easy week of running last week since I was fighting a pesky cold. The mileage wasn’t too low but all easy running. A lot of stroller runs.
My plantar fasciitis had actually been feeling better over the past few days. I have been icing three times a day and keeping up on strength and stretching. My plan has been to be very attentive to it, take a day off when I need to, rearrange plans of long runs, baby it while still running and then take a good break from running after Monumental. I do think that CAN BE an option for some people, but turns out it wasn’t a good option for me. I have extremely high arches. EXTREME. and I’m very prone to PF.
I was itching to do some speed work this week since I took it easy all week last week. Since I took Sunday off, I ran easy on Monday. I usually don’t like to do speed work the day after a rest day. I feel like I need an easy shakeout day first. Based on training timeline, Glenn and I decided I should do a long progression run for my mid week speed work.
The plan was a 12 mile progression and to gradually finish in at 6:30 pace for the last two miles. Since I’m a big baby and don’t like getting up early, I planned on doing the run at 9:30am from the Y after I dropped Marshall off at pre-school, so Lou could go to Y childcare. It was freaking hot on Tuesday and I knew I wouldn’t hit paces outside based on adjust effort in the heat so I decided to do the run on the treadmill. I wanted to run fast. I haven’t done much treadmill running at all lately. Probably 5 runs on the TM in the past two months. I kind of liked the idea of doing this on the treadmill so I went ahead and made that decision.
I wore the Saucony Kinvara’s for the run. I have never tried this shoe and Glenn really likes it so I gave it a shot. I normally run in the guide, which is a light stability shoe, but for this faster run and since I was going to be on the treadmill I felt like I’d be fine in the kinvara. I started out the run and felt great right away. By mile 5 I was near marathon goal pace and felt like I could run that for days. Breathing felt awesome, legs felt awesome, plantar or achilles felt fine. Somewhere during mile 8, something happened. I was at 6:45 pace at this point and I felt it pull. I couldn’t really put pressure on the middle of my foot. So naturally, like anyone who wants to finish their workout, I kept going and finished the progression at mile 11 and cooled down at mile 12. The entire last four miles I was running basically on the side of my foot. dumb. dumb. dumb. But I wanted to hit those paces. I wanted to know I had that workout in before Indy Women’s. it’s one of those runs you keep in your back pocket on race day and remind yourself how tough you were in the workout. Remind you what you are capable of. Not that it mattered- I should have known right then and there that whatever happened was bad enough that I wouldn’t be racing Indy Women’s in two weeks. I shouldn’t have finished the workout, but either way, the damage was done.
I wasn’t totally sure how bad I injured the foot, but as the day progressed, it became clear as I couldn’t even bare weight on it, that it wasn’t just sore. As the day went on the foot was getting more and more bruised. This makes for an interesting day being home with the boys up and down stairs. Marshall fine- but Louis obviously needs carried everywhere. It reminded me of when I had my mastectomy and tried to care for my 1.5 year old. (this is not nearly as severe as I don’t technically have a weight restriction but it’s just a little difficult). At a moment of frustration though when my foot was throbbing, I stood in the kitchen and thought about people I know who are actually really sick, caring for young children and I stood standing thankful that this was just a pesky injury and it’s really not a big deal.
So, I hobbled in to St. Vincent Sports Performance yesterday with both boys in tow. (We were a scene- at one point Marshall was running around with his shirt off and dumbing sand out of his shoes) They X-Rayed it and everything looked fine on the bone. He said I was the poster child for a stress fracture so wanted to check that.They didn’t do an ultra sound because the pressure of it on my foot would be painful so they are going to recheck in two weeks. The doctor thinks I completely tore the plantar fascia, rather than partially. He said that a full tear is actually better for healing rather than if I had partially torn it.
I’m now wondering around with a boot on my foot. Obviously I won’t be running Indy Women’s- which is in two weeks. Monumental is still a maybe, but time and goal adjustments will have to be made. I can still run a strong and smart marathon that I can be proud of. I know I was prepared for a big and long overdue half PR at Indy Women’s and was well on my way to being prepared for a big PR at Monumental, so I’m a little bummed, but whatever.
There are much worse things in life to be upset about. If you know me, you know I enjoy “required” time off. Post surgery and post babies, I soak up the down time, so that’s what I’m going to do now. I’m probably going to swim a lot to get my fix, but nothing crazy. Looking back, and I say this all the time- I was in the best shape of my life when I trained for the half ironman in 2013 and I had no pesky injuries then. I was running 3-4 times a week and swimming and biking 2-3 times each, so maybe that’s my solution. Living with an ultra guy makes me crave high mileage weeks, but I need to practice what I preach and just because it works for him doesn’t mean it will work for me. Not to mention, he has the most perfect stupid feet I’ve ever seen. The man doesn’t have a callous on his foot and he runs 80 miles a week all the time. That ain’t right.
Want to see a pic of the damage?
Cheers to some downtime and being what I might be known best for at Indy Women’s – a freaking cheerleader. Can’t wait to watch Jana kill it out there!! I’ve been coaching Jana for a year now and have seen her make HUGE strides in her training and am so excited that she is coming to stay with me and race this!
