A week ago we were forecast to have the storm of the century 3-4" of freezing rain and sleet topped with 8-12" of snow. It turned out to be a typical St Louis Shakespearean Forecast....Much Ado About Nothing! We got about 3" of sleet and a couple of inches of snow.This picture was taken last Saturday almost a week after the scary forecast. This forecast was for 2-3" of snow. We got 4-5"! It wouldn't have been too bad but it was on top of the previous snow/ice which had been walked & run on all week. The new snow served to hide the frozen and uneven surface below making running a challenge at least for those of us who prefer staying vertical!
As you know from my last post I worked my way through a slump and was ready to rock n'roll. Unfortunately a nagging pain in my left foot got worse. It is not a problem while running but after a run I cannot walk on a hard surface without significant pain. As long as I am on carpeting or wearing a shoe I am fine. For the past several weeks the pain would last about 24 hours then be gone until after the next run. Last week I took most of the week off, running only 5 miles but the pain never subsided.
I was concerned that I might have a stress fracture of the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal which is that little bump behind your small toe across from the ball of your foot. An x-ray a couple of weeks ago showed no fracture, but it only about 10 days into the pain which may be too early for a fracture to show. When you have a stress fracture, it is usually recommended that you do not run for 6-8 weeks it allow it to heal. With the marathon 8 weeks away that would mean that I would have to use alternate training methods and would not be able to run with the team until and hopefully on race day. One alternate training method is to wear a floatation belt and "run" in the pool. I did that for a short time in 2005 when I had an IT band issue. I must say pool running is many times more boring than running on a treadmill!
I worked the area of my foot with some release techniques hoping that it was a soft tissue problem. Rolling it on a small roller or ball was very painful and didn't help. Sunday I went back to the basics, Advil and ice. Fortunately, that seems to be helping. I am now hopeful that it is indeed a soft tissue injury and that I can keep it under control. I am planning a full running schedule this week but will compromise by running on a treadmill (softer and less impact) except for our team run on Saturday. Tonight I ran a nice easy 7 miles on the treadmill at just under a 10 minute pace and felt great. The doldrums are gone, my foot is better as I sit here with my foot on an ice pack.
I'll keep you posted!
Until next time,
Eric
aka RunGrampyRun
No comments:
Post a Comment