OWWW... my foot hurts

Well seems as though my "sore foot" from last week has not gotten any better. Since my last post, I've done nothing but R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compress and elevate) this entire week and still am in a fair bit of pain and am having trouble walking. It's not easy for me to just sit around and do nothing for an evening let alone and entire week, so, being the sharp cookie that I am, I picked up a good head cold to go with my aching foot. Fever, clogged sinuses, cough, shivers... yup, that helped me stay bed ridden this week. Except that now, the cold is gone, yet the hurting foot remains. Humph.

I couldn't stay in the house any longer, it was a beautiful weekend and there was no way I wasn't going to spend it on the beach. After running some errands Saturday, which included buying a new set of lines for my net (so now we can play on the beach any time we want) AND.... a new digital camera!! (Yippee!) I headed down to the beach. The same old mingle and chat and watching the action ensued, and I even got in a short game near the end of the day. This day I will chalk up as another day of "rest" since I really didn't do much. However, Sunday is a different story. The mingling and chatting of Saturday conjured up a full day of volleyball for Sunday. It was a PERFECT day. Down at the beach early, playing some good mixed 2's (Craig and I hosting the court for the better part of the day- thanks partner!) and good old fashion lazing around on the beach.

However.... by the end of the day, I was starting to feel it in my foot.. MAN, was I ever hurting. One of the perks about hanging out with so many sporty types is that your bound to find someone that has the same injury as you, or at least find a dozen or so people that have been athletes their whole life and can diagnose any sports related injury and recommend a therapy just as well as any doctor (and save me the 40min trip). So.. the indisputable, universally conclusive diagnosis is- Plantar Fasciitis. I've been doing plenty of reading and trying to figure out the best way to nurse this injury by finding the balance between a)resting and giving an appropriate time to heal and b) not completely sitting around so that I'm not bored or get all stiff.

It's funny, the more I've been reading about sports injuries and hearing other peoples stories of similar situations, I'm starting to see that there is SO MUCH MORE to this training than what I know (which apparently is very little). The fine line between pushing myself and overtraining is getting thinner and thinner and I'm not sure I can even see it anymore. The training tips I'm getting from running sites and books that emphasize the need for the body to rest after a hard workout completely make sense to me until I hear the real life stories of people training for the same thing I am who ride their bikes miles each day to work then strength train at the gym, they play sports during the week all while maintaining their running training schedule and on top of that all they continue the mentality to push harder everyday. So where do I begin??? I've obviously pushed maybe a bit to hard to fast, hence the ever aching foot, but now what? take it easy? or push on through? Am I facing permanent damage? or is this simply the obstacles that athletes deal with and I'm going to either lay down, put my iced foot up on the couch and call it a day, or I'm going to work it out and continue pushing to reach my goal. ARGH.

For now, I will rest, only for a bit. I am off to Los Angeles next week for business and I will enjoy yet another week off from training (however much I dislike it) and replace running and strength training with shopping and sightseeing.

Stay tuned.

First running injury

I was right. This whole marathon business is going to be one challenge after an other. This weekend, my long run was fantastic. I'm doing now 17k once a week and 2 smaller runs of 5-7k. Saturday was a perfect day for running, the sun was shining and the breeze was cool. I felt great, really strong in the first half of the run. I am just loving my new shoes, they are making such a difference in my comfort and stability. Also, I'm really starting to see the progress in myself now. It's automatic now when I head out to run that I am trying to run stronger and make some progress in each and every run. Now, during my 5k short runs, I'm expecting to be beating my time from the last run and I'm finding it much easier to push myself. I'm finding it much easier I think because the rewards are much greater. When I started running this 5K route a few months ago, it was my long run. I remember being happy with a time of 43min. Now, I've watched my time go from 33min, to 31min, to 30:40 and this weekend I did 5K in 26min. That's incredibly encouraging. Thinking of those kinds of rewards helps me in my long runs. I keep thinking about how eventually I'll be running 30K on the weekends and thinking back to how challenging the 17K was, and how at that point, 17K will seem like a walk in the park.

But, of course, like I began saying, this is just going to be one challenge after another. I really pushed myself to finish my 17k strong and it looks like I may have injured my foot. Sunday I started to feel a bit of tension in the muscles underneath my right foot, it was kind of sore like a pulled muscle. Anyway, I figured, that like with any sore or pulled muscle, a balance of rest and some easy exercise just to stretch it out should do the trick. Unfortunately, this seems not to be the case this time. It's been progressively worse since Sunday morning and as of today, I'm having a hard time just standing. A friend of mine told me it was a common runners' injury and that I need to take some time off. I'm taking it easy today, no running, going to the gym or much of anything else. Hopefully this is just a minor glitch in the program this week and all will be back to normal in a few days.

Until then.. I'll enjoy the rest I guess

First deadline met...

Great news to report today, I have officially met and surpassed my first fundraising deadline- two months early! After some very generous donations over the weekend, as of this morning my total funds raised is $1,578. With still a whole pledge sheet of donations to send off in the mail today, which will raise that total even more, I am well on my way to reach my second deadline by August.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me so far, and who will continue to support me and this great cause throughout this experience.

S.

These shoes were made for runnin'!!

15K! I ran 15K!Last night, finally, I've concurred the 15K run, and MAN did it ever feel great! There really isn't anything that compares to accomplishing something that really physically challenges you. I'm reading this great book about running, it's got great tips on everything from the right gear to how to set reasonable goals, and in the first few pages it immediately refers to the "Runners' High". This is that rush of adrenaline you get after completing a hard run. You would think that after running 15k you would fall over exhausted, but actually, it's exactly the opposite. After you cool down a bit, and catch your breath, it's like a brand new day. You've got the energy to do anything, I cleaned the house, went to the grocery store, folded the laundry, made a great big dinner full of healthy fresh vegetables. I was the furthest thing from exhausted. I was so excited about what I had just accomplished and so proud of myself.. I wanted to turn around and do it again! Ok.. that's pushing it a bit.. but you get it.

It could have also had something to do with my new shoes! Last weekend I headed over to my local Running Room and got suited up with a fancy new pair of ACIS 2110's. This was quiet the experience, buying shoes from the Running Room. Usually when I shop for shoes (which let me tell you, I have plenty of experience doing) I look for the cutest pair in the store, get my size, and voila, mission accomplished. But not today. Kathy, the stores manager and running expert, spent at least 40 min with me making sure that the shoe I had was perfectly suited for my foot. First, she had me in bare feet walking and running around the store while she analyzed my gate and foot structure. Then she had me do a few exercises to evaluate where the weight is being distributed over my foot. Once she had enough info about how far I was running now, how often I was running and what type of running I was planning on doing, she went in the back and pulled out the appropriate shoe for me. I didn't even get to pick which one I wanted!! She just showed up with the shoes that I would need. I tried them all on, and WOW, what a difference. When you finally get the support in places that you didn't even know you needed support, it's like you just got a brand new pair of feet!! With the perfect shoe now, and a few accessories to boot (water belt and new socks) I walked out of the store only $200 poorer.

Training this weekend was a bit out of the ordinary. Saturday I decided not to workout and take a day of rest. I went down to the Clothing Show at the Automotive Center and spent the majority of the day walking around there. I didn't get much exercise myself, but whew, my VISA sure got a good workout. Sunday, I came across a whole new challenge, probably the hardest challenge of all. Running when you really, really REALLY don't want to run. It was cold and windy outside and I was a bit on the tired side and I would have rather done ANYTHING but go out for a 10k run. Urgh. But, not everyday is going to be easy, and if I really want to do this marathon, I'm going to have to train for it, even when I don't want to. So... I put on my shoes (this was Sunday morning before I bought the new shoes, so I didn't even have them to be excited about) and away I went. Every step was painful, from about the time I put the shoes on, to the point I was back in my house an hour later, every moment all I could think about was how much I DID NOT WANT TO BE RUNNING. But, this whole thing is about accomplishing challenges, and Sunday I accomplished a big one. That took a whole lotta effort and I did it. Hopefully those days are few and far between and I have more days like yesterday.

Fundraising is coming along, slow but surely I'll make it to $8,000. Stay tuned for more info on the clothing drive and the summer BBQ!

S.