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.