Saturday, to try to take it easy on my foot for my curtailed long run, I did 10 miles on the track. Forty laps. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. What drudgery. Making matters worse, my Garmin Forerunner ran out of battery life before I even got started, so I had to count laps myself. I grabbed a long blade of grass every mile and built a little pile of them by my water bottle, to help keep track.
Physically, the run was fine. I woke up that morning with some foot pain and some sciatica, but after a mile or two, both were gone, not to appear again for the rest of the day. I didn’t keep track of time carefully, but the miles were somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 each.
I think my foot is, on average, feeling better. The icing and stretching and taping continues.
I’m still working through the hundred pushups thing. I just tried day one of week three, and it was a killer… I couldn’t get through it, or even get all that close. So I’m going to repeat week two again.
i am no expert, but i wonder if your foot problems have coincided with your speed work? i’ve been reading through your blog (which has been inspiring btw…I plan on doing the Hagg Lake run in part due to reading about your experience) and it seems like you didn’t do “real” speed work until recently? i know speed work is often the cause of injury, so something to keep in mind.
Mark,
It’s definitely possible. Although I’ve had some early PF signs for quite a while, it certainly took off around the same time I started the track stuff. In any case, I’m obviously off the speed work for the time being. And the hill work. Sigh.
Good luck at Hagg Lake! It was a lot of fun. Hopefully I’ll be there again next year. I have a feeling we won’t get so lucky with the weather again though…