Long Slow Run.. without water.

Good Morning!

I am feeling surprisingly great this morning!  Why so surprisingly?  Well, yesterday was my Long Slow Distance run.  What? You would like to hear more about it? GLADLY!

I have to admit, it didn't start off to grand.  I started searching for my ifitness belt, but had no luck.  After half an hour I finally gave up - and headed out without it.  (A 10 mile run with no water.. This should be fun..)  Now, It wasn't as bad as it could be - as it was raining, so that should help a little with the heat, right?  Right.. about that..  It stopped half a mile into the run.

But, ever the eternal optimist, I kept running. My goal was to head down to Crofton parkway, do two laps and head home.  I figured I could add a little  bit extra to move myself from 9.5 miles up to 10 or 11.  Due to the dreary nature of the day - there was not the usual numbers of people out and about - it was quite peaceful.  In fact, in the first round I only saw 3 other runners and 2 pairs of walkers!  On any given Sunday - with nice weather -I could expect 3 or 4 times that many!

Running for cake

BIRTHDAYS!!!!!!  Always a fun, fun time... Joy, Presents, Cake and... Calories!

So, with that in mind, I planned ahead (how uncharacteristic of me!)  and got a run in before dinner.  Not far, as there was a time constraint - but a quick 3 miles.  My KT Tape was in to its 4th day, and I do think it has lost some of its effectiveness,  Perhaps it stretched out?  But my plantar fascia is tight today, but not painful, so it seems to still be working.. Or the intense stretching is..

Running and Rolling

So, my last couple of posts have glossed over any training - while focusing on my fundraiser/giveaway.  Rest assured, I have still been working on my training!

Last night, I went out for an easy 3ish miles (I accidentally gypped myself .14 of a mile.. so it is 3ISH not 3...).  I demonstrated the previous taping technique I was using, with great results.  I have tried a new one, as that taping method is not water-resistant.  KT Tape (You may recall that I used this back when I made a habit of pulling calf muscles) had helped me in the past, I thought it was worth trying now! (Plus, in the interest of full disclosure, my wife went and bought a roll for her knee pain..)

[caption id="attachment_2824" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Screenshot from KTTape.com. Click to go to their page to see the video![/caption]

#Juneathon Day 7 - Pending

So, my Plantar Fascia was a bit sore this morning.  To be clear, this wasn't suprising as I was hobbling yesterday - starting an hour or two after my run.  I don't know if it was from the run, or the walking around on concrete  - or most likely a combination of the 2..

Due to the down pouring rain - riding a bike is out.. So I am not sure what to do.  It has to be something that will go easy on my plantar fascia.. Any suggestions?

 

#Junathon - Day 5 and 6 -Stretching, and a return to my normal pace.

So, I am again combining two days into one posting.. I'm such a slacker.  To be fair, I did set the tone with my first posting that was 2 days late and ended up covering 3 days.

Yesterday morning, I was simply too tired to be able to find the motivation to get up and out of bed to run.  This meant a nice evening run was in store - but my wife had to go see the doctor about some knee issues.. That turned yesterday's workout into stretching and foam rolling!

[caption id="attachment_2759" align="aligncenter" width="490"] picture from gypsy-fit!
http://gypsy-fit.com/foam-roller-exercises/[/caption]

I really need to do more foam-rolling...  Very nice, but not to interesting to blog about.. .so we will move on to this morning, which involved running!

Last Run of the (choir) Season.

Last night was the end of choir season.  At  the end of the season, the Maryland State Boy choir hosts a festival that draws kids from all over!  Members of the  Newark Boy Choir,  the Ann Arbor Boy choir and many others have come to Baltimore for this year's fun.  While this is an awesome thing, it means that the usual waiting room is unavailable for the parents.  No biggie for the beginning of the evening, as I had plans to go running, despite my ongoing foot pain.  You heard me right.. Foot pain.  My plantar fasciitis has been quite bad lately.  Bad enough that I even tried wearing the odd boot in bed to see if it would help!

[caption id="attachment_2684" align="aligncenter" width="490"] I needed a picture here. I liked this one.[/caption]

Despite that, I was all set to run and had plans to meet up with my running partner! 

Plantar Fasciitis Treatment - an excerpt from Craig Payne posted on the Podiatry Arena

This is an excerpt from a posting by Craig Payne - Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia from the Podiatry-Arena forum.  It is reposted with his permission.  Special thanks to Peter Bird for bringing this forum posting to my attention.  Pictures were added by me, to help illustrate.  The original posting had no photos or illustrations.


Ok, Mr Runner, you have got plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis occurs when the load in the plantar fascia exceeds what the tissue can take, so we have only two things we can do. One is reduce the load and the other is increase the ability of the tissues to take the load. Reducing the load is easy and is something we can do today. Increasing the ability of the tissue to take the load is more difficult, takes time and is not something we can do in the short term.

[caption id="attachment_2329" align="alignright" width="300"] Low Dye Strapping -  photo from http://conejofeet.com/patients-guide-heel-pain/[/caption]

I know you have a marathon to run in 4 weeks. Is the plantar fasciitis interfering with your preparation for that? If it is, then we will use low dye strapping today to get a more acute effect of reducing the load. At least that will help the symptoms and start the healing process while we keep an eye on that marathon preparation.

The Plantar Fasciitis Trials - Part 3 - The Podiatrist

So.. Picking up where I left off on part 2 - Off to see the podiatrist.

First, lets look at my thoughts/views/experiences regarding podiatrists.  I had never been to one (that covers experiences.)

I love research, so I had googled everything I possibly could in regards to  Plantar Fasciitis and (when I first got them) Vibram Five Fingers.  This had led me  to several Podiatry forums.  I read everything I possibly could on both topics - after all, these were the foot experts right?   Before I looked into Plantar Fasciitis and had been researching VFFs, I noticed a really common theme.  Podiatrists hated them.  This wasn't a huge surprise, after all Christopher McDougall had said the same thing in articles and in his book.  It was amazing to me the outright vehemence that the Podiatrists posted about them. The more common viewpoint seemed to be that any form of "minimalist" shoe was simply a horrible injury waiting to happen, whether you did "too much too soon" or not.  In fact, the whole idea of "too much too soon" as a problem was ridiculed.

The Plantar Fasciitis Trials - Part 2 - The pain.

To pick up where my story left off (while providing enough "Catch up" info for anyone that didn't read part 1), I had stepped on a rather sharp rock in my worn-down (not that there is a whole lot to wear down, but there is a difference) Vibram Five Fingers, while trail running.  I think that under the circumstances,  most people would assume, as I did, That I had bruised the bottom of my foot.

[caption id="attachment_1465" align="alignleft" width="300"] My ice bottle under my desk at my former job![/caption]

The pain really wasn't horrible at this point, in fact I would call it relatively minor. I avoided running (because slamming a bruise into the ground over-and-over for several miles didn't strike me as "fun,") and used an elliptical for a few days.  I was even bright enough to avoid running until the pain was pretty much gone, with only a residual tightness remaining.  (In hind-sight, I've never had a bruise cause "Tightness."  At the time I did not know what this could be indicative of.)  While not running was frustrating, I was pleased with myself for learning from my previous year's experiences. 

The Plantar Fasciitis Trials - Part 1. Background

So, I've recently had several discussion regarding my experiences with Plantar Fasciitis both in comments on my blog, and with several people in person.  This made me realize it might be worth taking the time to really take a look and explain what I have done, and why!  I'll start with the background.

[caption id="attachment_2188" align="alignright" width="210"] My first pair of Vibram Five Fingers[/caption]

It all started with my switching over to Vibram Five Fingers.  I didn't know at the time that it could contribute, or why.  Looking back, I suspect that a big part of it is the old "too much too soon" problem combined with my complete lack of flexibility.  I don't know that moving into the five fingers slower would have prevented this - but had I been stretching my calves/Achilles/hamstrings - the additional time would have helped.  But I might be getting ahead of myself.

Year in Review

Well, as the year draws to a close, its time to look back.  It has definitely been one hell of a year!  Lets look at the Annual Mileage:



According to Daily Mile - 352 miles is what I ran this year.  I don't think that is all that bad considering over 6 months of that was spent NOT running!  I do have to admit, my goal was a bit.. higher.  Since I am both starting and ending the year able to run, I'm not going to spend any time complaining about the mileage in the middle!

[caption id="attachment_1056" align="alignleft" width="176"] Running in the cold![/caption]

January - Probably the most remarkable aspect of the year's beginning - is I ran outside!  No treadmill, just the road, layers of clothes and me.  In the interest of Honesty, I do have to admit that my first run of the year in upstate NY was 50 degrees...  Mother nature made up for it, with my 12 degree run 3 days later...  I also got my fantastic Angry Birds hat.   I logged 46 miles.

Mr. Potato Head.

Getting out of work early means I can get some of that exercising in BEFORE it is 8 o'clock at night!  Now really, I don't mind (most days) working out at night.. its kind of nice to exercise and do yoga (followed by a MUCH needed shower of course) to end the day out.  It really does let me go to bed stress-free. (Well, except when my wife was hoping for a back rub, and the reason she didn't get one was the treadmill and yoga...)

[caption id="attachment_1888" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Random Picture - with a Random Fact![/caption]

I decided I wanted to see if the Yoga was making any immediate difference.  As you are no doubt aware, I have been using it to stretch out after my runs.  Last night, I didn't. I did my usual calf-stretch, but immediately jumped through the shower afterwards - no Yoga in sight. 

Taping Plantar Faciitis again.

So I pulled the tape off that I have had on my foot for 4 or 5 days.  The tape was not quite in the same shiny white condition it had been.  In fact,I think the technical term would be - nasty.   But I hadn't been wearing it as a fashion statement, instead I had been wearing it as I had been able to walk mostly pain-free with the tape.  Having removed it, my first question was how much it would (or wouldn't) hurt to walk with its absence. so I was curious as to how it would do without the tape.  The foot-log felt good with out the tape, so I tried walking.  there was some uncomfortableness (is that a word?) when I walked - so I decided (With my wife's brilliant input) to re-tape it.  Well, that means I asked my wife to re-tape it and she agreed. Have you ever tried to tape your own foot?

I miss running.