Trails and Travails

Haha, I explained a bit on FB, but the break-up comment was a complete joke. We have a bizarre sense of humor (we were both sitting at the computer laughing our asses off as I typed it, then she subsequently "liked" it). The bliss was/is real, however. Slightly less so now that she's on her way back to DC.

Consensus on the foot seems to be that it's a possible stress fracture (oh fuck), but since there's no bruising or swelling and the pain is only there when I'm wearing (terribly unsupportive) shoes, I'm going to hope it's just a bruise or sprain or something. Either way, the running plans got shot, so I guess I'm stuck at the gym and on the bike for a couple weeks.

At least you have the common sense to not run. Enjoy the bike.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Haha, I explained a bit on FB, but the break-up comment was a complete joke. We have a bizarre sense of humor (we were both sitting at the computer laughing our asses off as I typed it, then she subsequently "liked" it). The bliss was/is real, however. Slightly less so now that she's on her way back to DC.

Consensus on the foot seems to be that it's a possible stress fracture (oh fuck), but since there's no bruising or swelling and the pain is only there when I'm wearing (terribly unsupportive) shoes, I'm going to hope it's just a bruise or sprain or something. Either way, the running plans got shot, so I guess I'm stuck at the gym and on the bike for a couple weeks.

Oh, you crazy kids. Glad all's well, though.

Sucks about the foot. I have a hard time believing it's a stress reaction, though. I mean, you haven't been stressing it for several weeks. My guess is that you aggravated one of your peroneal tendons (probably stiff after going unused, and pushed too hard, too soon). The course of pain you describe pretty much matches it... pain a the head of the 5th metatarsal, stretching back along the side of the foot back behind the lateral malleous (that knobby thing on the outside of your ankle). Ice, elevate and keep working it... but not quite as vigorously as you did. I bet it'll resolve itself in a week or two.

I tend to agree with Mark's post, although I'm not a Doc, just play one on the internet. I mean, didn't you just hike through Yosemite for a few days?

Mark/Michele - I'm hoping Mark's diagnosis is correct. The fact that the calf pain is coupled with the foot pain is selling me on this, and that the tendons follow the exact progression of the pain... Fingers crossed, still.

Yes, I hiked about 15 miles over the course of 2 days, with pack, and had no problems.

I do remember coming home from the run on Thursday and telling my mom that I started hard and didn't let up the entire time - probably somewhere around a high-GA effort level. Normally I ease into that kind of run with 2 miles really easy, but I definitely didn't do any sort of warm-up this time.

Mike MacLellan wrote:I do remember coming home from the run on Thursday and telling my mom that I started hard and didn't let up the entire time - probably somewhere around a high-GA effort level. Normally I ease into that kind of run with 2 miles really easy, but I definitely didn't do any sort of warm-up this time.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

You need to take care of your body, Mike. You're not getting any younger, you know.

Update: Jogged from the gym home today. Foot feels better jogging than walking. Of course. Still not 100%, but it's getting better. Gonna probably try an up-to-4 mile run Thursday.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Update: Jogged from the gym home today. Foot feels better jogging than walking. Of course. Still not 100%, but it's getting better. Gonna probably try an up-to-4 mile run Thursday.

Very good news - sounds like it isn't a worse-case scenario, but play it careful - make sure to do your normal slow warmup beforehand.... Weird that the foot feels better jogging than walking - guess you'll have to jog everywhere now!

Definitely going to ease back into it, but I think that easing back into it with some consistency is actually something I want to be doing at this point. I'd like to be doing at least a couple miles every day and be rebuilding my long runs to 90-120min by winter break (6 weeks) so that I can be ready to train for Boston in January...

I would tend to agree with the tendon strain theory also. Of course it is a theory not a dx. It is good news that you can tolerate jogging IMO. I'm glad also that it looks like you are making running plans at this point. Things seem to be looking up in the overall scheme of things.

BTW, your pics of Yosemite are cool. Looks like a beautiful area.

So, how's the foot feeling today? Better, I hope.

Jon - Looking up, indeed. Hopefully the motivation will continue. It's supposed to be pretty chilly up north this week, so that should help. Love running in the 40s.

Mark - A little tender, but it feels about the same as it did from time to time when I was pounding out 15 hour weeks. Might be a good thing that I'm not on the motorcycle today, since I remember shifting used to make it a bit worse.

Mike, I dealt with a case of peroneal tendonitis earlier this year while training for and running Boston. The bummer is that it hung on for a long time, but for the most part I was able to train through it. Over the counter anti-inflammatories (Aleve) seemed to work a bit, but it didn't totally go way until after Boston, when I was able to shut it down for a little while. No matter what, I'd take that over a stress fracture anytime.

I had a similar kind of foot pain after racing my 50 miler a couple years ago. It ended up being just a stress of a ganglion of connective tissue in the foot, which took about 2 weeks off to heal up, so it was pretty quick (I also R.I.C.E'd the area).

Good luck getting back into consistency! I'm on the same page as you in that respect.

The good news: 2 bike rides later, the foot gave me NO problems and is even feeling better walking.

The bad news: that second bike ride, which took place yesterday, was a 3-hour sufferfest in which I bonked HARD around the 2-hour mark and subsequently oscillated between wanting to vomit, feelings of complete despair, and feelings of mild euphoria for the remaining hour. I mean, shit, I know it's hilly up here, but this was literally 40 miles of NON-STOP rollers at 5-8% on average. The 2 kicks at 12% in the last half hour blew me to pieces. Please don't divide 40 by 3 and figure out how painfully slow I rode.

Why would I do such a crazy thing? My brother (of course) is starting his base again. So he said, "as long as we keep my HR above 130, I don't care how fast or slow we go." But he wanted the hillier route, since the flat route would be exactly like Davis. Understandable. I was almost afraid to ask how worthless of a ride it was for him by the time we finished, but apparently other than the very end (2-3 miles of consistent downhill), his HR was above 150 the entire ride. Well, alright.

I guess that's not too shabby, given my steady diet of absolute trash for the last two weeks and my pre-ride fuel of a big latte and half a bowl of oatmeal.

So, despite me reeeeeally wanting to test out the foot today on a short run, I'm taking it as a rest day to let my body and muscles recover. I don't want to fuck up the foot again because my quads and hips were lazy and put all the strain on said foot.

I'm wondering how long this streak of optimism and motivation will continue, but I'm not doing anything to jeopardize it. I think eating a bit better the past couple days has kept me in the healthy mindset, as has getting a bit more rest and all that positive self-talk nonsense.

For me its all about keeping the ball rolling. Once I start working out more, I want to eat better, which makes me want to work out more. Then the next day knowing how hard I've worked recently makes me want to workout even more. Just keep the ball rolling and it will come to a full head of steam in no time.

Mike MacLellan wrote:The good news: 2 bike rides later, the foot gave me NO problems and is even feeling better walking.

The bad news: that second bike ride, which took place yesterday, was a 3-hour sufferfest in which I bonked HARD around the 2-hour mark and subsequently oscillated between wanting to vomit, feelings of complete despair, and feelings of mild euphoria for the remaining hour. I mean, shit, I know it's hilly up here, but this was literally 40 miles of NON-STOP rollers at 5-8% on average. The 2 kicks at 12% in the last half hour blew me to pieces. Please don't divide 40 by 3 and figure out how painfully slow I rode.

Why would I do such a crazy thing? My brother (of course) is starting his base again. So he said, "as long as we keep my HR above 130, I don't care how fast or slow we go." But he wanted the hillier route, since the flat route would be exactly like Davis. Understandable. I was almost afraid to ask how worthless of a ride it was for him by the time we finished, but apparently other than the very end (2-3 miles of consistent downhill), his HR was above 150 the entire ride. Well, alright.

I guess that's not too shabby, given my steady diet of absolute trash for the last two weeks and my pre-ride fuel of a big latte and half a bowl of oatmeal.

So, despite me reeeeeally wanting to test out the foot today on a short run, I'm taking it as a rest day to let my body and muscles recover. I don't want to fuck up the foot again because my quads and hips were lazy and put all the strain on said foot.

I'm wondering how long this streak of optimism and motivation will continue, but I'm not doing anything to jeopardize it. I think eating a bit better the past couple days has kept me in the healthy mindset, as has getting a bit more rest and all that positive self-talk nonsense.

Hm. Crappy nutrition. HR 20+ above the target. Hitting it hard after an extended down period.

Cause, meet effect!

(Glad your foot is feeling better, but for cripes sake, don't overdo it!)

Now go eat something!

Nah, it was my brother's HR that was 20 over target. C'mon Mark, you think I've gone back to technology that quickly?! I didn't even reset the bike computer before the ride. I only know it was 3hrs and 40 miles because my brother told me as we rolled up the driveway.

Neil - Agreed 100%. I decided that my week home was a good time to get all the laziness and trash out of the way, come back to Auburn fresh, and be ready to start training for Boston by New Year's.

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The foot? I feel nothing. NOTHING. And I've been walking on it all day. Excellent.

Oh, so THAT'S why I love running. Did a no-watch run this morning. Memory tells me it was between 4 and 5 miles, but that's only significant because my foot held up through all of it. Okay, a slight niggle around what I think was mile 3, but it went away when I got back on top of my form. Saw a pretty big (massive compared to home's) coyote long after it saw me. Glad it was only curious and then lost interest and trotted away.

Ah, I could get used to this again.

Baby steps, Mike.

Planned ~4.25 miles became ~3.5 (if memory serves...) when the left foot niggle wouldn't go away. Just a dull ache, but no matter how much I tried to shorten my stride, lengthen my stride, increase my cadence, decrease my cadence, change my footstrike... It never went away.

So I'm taking a page from Mark's book and playing it safe. He mentioned a while back that eventually, my pre-frontal cortex (I think that was it, anyway) will "harden up" and I'll stop being so capricious. I have a feeling that's still a long way off, but I'll be damned if I can't pull some discipline out of myself based on will power alone. I just keep telling myself that it's better to end every single run wanting nothing but to run more than ending any single run in debilitating pain.

This is going to be a long process, but I've got some time.

Mike MacLellan wrote:This is going to be a long process, but I've got some time.

Excellent, Mike. I can almost hear those synapses connecting.

Can't complain about today, even though I bent the rules a bit.

Woke up planning on a 1.5-2hr bike ride, but it was still wet, with occasional rain, and cold cold cold. In other words, it was a perfect day for trail running.

So trail run I did.

Did the canal route and told myself that if my foot was 100% by the time I hit Cardiac I'd go down it. When the foot wasn't 100%, I decided to just go to the turn-around (arbitrary drainage pipe after which the trail gets pointless to run on) and head back. Felt pretty good as I approached a quarter-mile downhill offshoot, so I turned and powered down that. Was nice to feel a bit of speed in the legs with the foot keeping quiet. Then went up a bumpy half mile trail before cutting over to Overlook Park on another bumpy (not really rolling, since the rollers are maybe 4-5' high and only about 50' long) trail.

Run was somewhere between 40-50 minutes, I think, and the foot ranged from a 1 (barely noticeable) to a 5 (approximately the level of dull ache/pain I felt the entire run yesterday) on the pain scale with most of it being in the 2 range. This arbitrary scale goes to 10, mind you. Currently rolling it out on an empty wine bottle (roundest thing I have in the apartment...) which seemed to help yesterday.

Had a nice chuckle early on in the run when I was approaching a middle-aged woman (she looked on the younger side of middle-aged, maybe in her early 40s?) and called "runner back" pretty early on to avoid spooking her as I got closer. Her pace was only maybe 30sec/mi slower than me, so it took me a bit to catch her. Once I was within 10', she asked if I wanted to pass, and I said not to worry, I'd sneak by when there was a widening in the trail. I explained that I was just calling it early so I didn't scare her, since I tend to call too late and people freak out when they turn and see me. She replied: "Oh, no, I'm way too old to get scared." Brightened my morning up quite a bit.

Glad to hear you were able to get out there and get some time in on the trails without pain! Just keep doing what you can for now and the foot will tell you when its time to start hammering workouts. Until then, just keep longing for the day when you can run as long as you want, and remember that feeling when the training gets tough.

Great to hear you are having fun out there - as you know from reading my stuff this summer I had some miserable bike rides mixed in there, and all of mine were basically flat (my hilly rides are your flat rides). And I don't care how far you ride, but a 3 hour+ ride is a beast.

Nice job listening to your body, Mike. I bet it appreciated the chance to get back out there on the trails. Keep it fun!