Remember Me?

Remember Me?

Apparently foot injuries hurt. In my long and whatever-happens-to-be-the-opposite-of-illustrious running career, I had never actually injured my foot before. Once, in the Bay Area, I bought a new pair of Adidas running shoes that caused some mad arch pain after about a mile of running, so I threw them into the closet and bought new shoes. Problem solved. Those Adidas came out occasionally as walking shoes and whenever I listened to Run DMC, but I never ran in them again.

The day after my last twenty mile run I needed to go to the post office for whatever reason, and it was this very pair of shoes that were nearest as I lay on the couch watching ‘Deal or No Deal.’ I rolled over, put them on, proceeded to walk down the stairs, and felt a twinge, that was not a good twinge, on the outside of my right arch. I took off the shoes very quickly, put a hex on them, and switched to new shoes before limping off the to post office. Turns out, the damage was done. My foot was not right for over two weeks. Walking was a chore, and running was out of the question. I ended up missing speedwork during the week after my twenty-miler, and when I thought I had it all sorted out, a four mile run aggravated it to the point that I had to cancel the sixteen miles that were scheduled on the following Sunday. I labored through my “normal run” that week and completely made a mockery of speedwork on that Thursday. By Sunday, I knew I needed to run sixteen miles, but I wasn’t sure if I could hack it. I did it, even if it wasn’t pretty. I had to stop every few miles and stretch my foot. I ended up with a semi-decent time of 2:39:56, which was okay for a guy hobbling, but it was way off my goal pace.

That was probably the darkest moment in my training so far. All I knew was that I seemed a million miles away from my happy twenty miler, and that everything went wrong the day after I finally registered. Thanks to those shoes.

This all made me very unhappy.

Luckily, things improved on the following Tuesday. I felt fresh as I embarked on a six miler and finished the run in less than 52 minutes, without really feeling like I was forcing things. Then, on Thursday, I had what was supposed to be a tempo run in which five miles were to be at an 8:04 pace. I had been doing all of my speed- and tempo work on a track, and I was pretty sure that twenty consecutive laps were going to kill me no matter the pace I did them in. I got through it though, with about 7:58 per mile. This was reassuring. I think I labored through the run a bit more than I was supposed to, but the fact that I got through it meant that I hadn’t lost all of my fitness, right? Right?

I had my second of three twenty milers scheduled for Sunday, but I didn’t feel ready because my foot still feels pretty tender. So I downgraded the run to a sixteen miler, knowing that I have another twenty coming up in two weeks. The run went well, although I had some surprise (bonus!) ITB problems in my left knee that made things less than totally pleasant. I finished the run in 2:31:58, meaning that I shaved about eight minutes off my time for the same distance from a week previous. I dare to dream that I am coming out of the darkness. In fact, this time was actually a little faster than my target training time.

It’s a little frustrating to deal with injuries, as everyone knows. This time feels particularly bitter. It seems like an overuse type of injury, but I know that I am not running excessively more miles than I was before I started training. I even checked my log and noticed that I logged more miles in the month leading up to last winter’s half marathon than I did in the month leading up to the disintegration of my right foot. But, there is not much use in whining, I suppose. I dropped a couple of runs, which I try not to do, but I suppose it isn’t that bad. My last seven long runs were supposed to read like this: 16, 18, 20, 7, 16, 20, 16. What I ended up with was something like this: 17, 18, (sick), 20, (injured), 16, 16. Essentially, I had to drop a seven miler and a twenty miler. Its not the end of the world, considering I still have a couple more weeks before tapering, but it means I might need to revise my goals. Whereas my ideal goal was 3:45, I think now I might need to try and look towards 4:00 being my target. We’ll see how these last few weeks of training sort themselves out. I’m still optimistic, and I still trust in the plan.

I think things are going to be okay.