Heartland Series Training Week 6

Well, another week of a wonky foot.  Here is how it played out:

Monday:  4 miles easy.  This was a test to see how my foot would react after running 10 miles the previous day.  We took it easy although a few times I saw 9s on my watch, so we had to back off.  Sometimes we just talk and forget about pace.  Iced, took advil, and watched Westminster post run.  Foot felt great during and after.

Tuesday:  Rest day.  Woke up with pain in my foot, back to what it previously was after two days of no pain during the day.  Did advil and put my orthotics, on and didn't have pain the rest of the day.  Even though that little pad kind of hurts other parts of my foot, it sure does make the other pain go away, and i will take it.

Wednesday: 5 easy miles.  Nothing exciting about this one.  Is it sad to say that I am ready for some speed work?

Thursday: Visit with a chiropractor and strength.  Tried getting in with a podiatrist but he was booked till mid may.  Sigh.

Okay, my old chiropractor did the whole manual manipulation.  I was not ready for this new fangled treatment.  He used this gun thumper thing on me, that kind of scared me.  This new guy came highly recommended for crazy runner types like me.  He was super nice and thoroughly listened to my issues.  He had me lay on the table, and then did some tests before he started adjusting me.  He said initially my fibula was out of place on my left leg, and that was torquing everything, including my left ouchy foot.  He felt like there was not a neuroma at all, but he never really did any test to prove to me that I didn't.  He also didn't see any point in the pad that the PT put in my shoe the week before.  He was okay with the orthotics, but he felt like the shoes I had them in (I recycle old running shoes as my daily shoes, i know, bad idea) were too old and broken down.  He would do an adjustment and then he would have me go take a walk for 5 minutes around the block before adjusting me again.  I had adjustments in my foot, leg, back, and neck.  He did probably three different adjustments, and had me walk three different times.  I have to admit, I had no pain afterwards, and was fine during my strength training.  That is the first time in a LONG time that I was pain free in my foot.  I started feeling a little ouchy later that night, around 9 pm, so I took a long hot salt bath.  

Friday: easy 5.  I had another appointment with the chiro on friday.  I did strength thursday, changing out the split jump lunges with planks.  I had kept the jump squats in, as they didn't hurt my feet, and neither did the step downs, and stepping weighted lunges.  My chiro was very happy, as he said my adjustment had held.  He did say something else was out, but it was higher up on my leg, and for whatever reason, he was happy about that.  We went over my shoe issue, as in stability versus neutral, versus orthotics.  We decided that the older shoes I wore everyday were out.  I am going to try wearing my stability shoes as my everyday shoes, and run in my neutral shoes.  The only problem is, I feel like my stability shoes (asics) crunch my foot up and have a very narrow toe box.  I think I have gotten use to my saucony's bigger toe box, and anything else feels too small.  My chiro wanted me to go ahead with my two easy runs, my easy 5 on friday, and 11 on sunday before a recheck.  I will admit, I for the first time had pain in my foot during running.  It wasn't sharp, it was kind of dull ache and it came and went.  I will play this weekend by ear.

If I go in on monday and I still have pain or my adjustment doesn't hold, he wants me to take a week off.  If i have to take a week off, I am going to renew my membership to the pool at KSU, and hit the deep water well.  I will not freak out about time off.

Saturday: Strength:  Didn't happen.  We spent the day in Lawrence together, and didn't get home till late.  I was worn out.  We had one happy red headed little boy though.  We visited a model train show, a 3 story toy store, and a new to me running store.  I got to sample a Nuun happy hour that had Nuun mixed with champagne, and grabbed a new to me flavor of all day Nuun that was on sale.  We also visited andrew's favorite pizza place, CiCi's pizza, and got some candy at the toy store.  It was a FUN day!

Sunday:  11 easy miles planned.  What happened was much less.  My foot wasn't hurting, but my leg further up above my ankle a little bit was KILLING me.  I kept thinking it would warm out, as other little aches and pains do, but nope, it just kept at the same intensity.  I decided to call my hubby to come and pick me up rather than keep pushing on in pain and making Mel walk.  I think we both thought it would just warm up and out, but it just wouldn't.  After getting home, I tried putting on my compression socks and heading back out.  That lasted about 2 miles and then the pain came right back.  Again, I had to call my hubby to come and pick me up since I was too far out to limp back.  I surrender foot/leg/whatever.  After having a bit of a pity cry and stress eating some bad food, I have clarity, and am ready to get this mess taken care of, even if it means not running.  I am just hoping that the adjustments just have me out of whack, and that all I need is rest.  I am going to go back to the chrio monday and tell him what is going on, and see if biking or water jogging is even an option.

Total miles for the week: 19.5 miles.

Going to need all of that positive vibes and energy that you can spare this week.  I am going to keep my eye on the prize and not go crazy.  I can hopefully still run all of my half marathons, and just move my goal race till later.  The bigger goal is the 50 K anyway, but I do want to finish the Heartland Series, since it is my third time doing it.  Have a great week and run some miles for me!