Being very, very careful!!

Been meaning to tell y'all that I've deemed myself injured.  Now, that doesn't mean I'm not running, but I had to take a serious step back to keep things from spinning out of control.  Ever since the Galesburg Half Marathon I've been dealing with heel pain & tenderness.  At first it wasn't too bad, but recently it was down right painful and hurt all the time.

This was not in my plan as I just recently declared myself serious and going all out on my training to prepare for Howl at the Moon in 6 (EEK!  SIX!!!!) weeks.  So, it must be some kind of Murphy's Law, right?  *Siiiiigh*  I should just take it like a grown mature woman, but instead I want to throw myself on the ground and yell  IT'S NOT FAAAAAAAAIR!  Classy, right?

Getting myself to admit that I was injured to begin with was a big step.  I had others telling me I should slow down, take it easy, back off of training, etc.  And I refused to listen.  But the pain was getting quite annoying and considering I have a high pain tolerance (very high, I personally think my 6 natural labors were "not bad" at all.) when I finally got to the point of declaring "uncle" I knew things were getting serious.  I still didn't want to back off of training, other than the heel pain, running was going really, REALLY well.

I happened to see my physical therapist at a health fair & asked her about my pain.  See, it had a very familiar feeling from when I battled plantar fasciatis (PF) in March of 2012.  And when I say heel pain it's not quite the heel of my foot, but the ball portion on the back of my foot, right before you get to the actual heel.  So it feels like PF, but wasn't bothering my arch like it did last time.  Oh and it's the same foot from when I had serious PF issues before.  So I asked her if it could be PF and she said "YES!".  She warned me that if I ignore it it can lead to achilles tendinitis and that is worse and takes longer to heal.  *gulp*  Ok......ok......she had my attention!  She quickly reviewed the stretches I need to be doing and other treatment ideas (icing, massage, etc.) to help with recovery.  She saved the worst for last (she admitted to this), by telling me that over use (aka running a lot) is also a huge contributor and I should scale back on my running.   I closed my eyes, put my fingers in my ears and said "lalalalalalalalalaa.....I can't hear you".  I KNOW!  My maturity just blows you all away!!  We had a good laugh over it because she knows how I really am and she's loving and supportive, but willing to tell me what I don't want to hear.

With her advise I scaled back drastically on my running and began to implement her stretches & recovery techniques to get my foot back on the road to recovery.  It kinda really sucks because I want nothing but to go out and run big long runs all the time!  And it changes my training plan (one that is not on paper, but all up in my head) and sets me back a notch.  However, I know if I don't get this taken care of now things will likely continue to get worse and then I won't be able to run at all or have a horrible race at Howl at the Moon.  I mean, make no mistake, I will race Howl (unless I'm literally physically uncapable), but I'm not interested in another year of running injured and having "ok" results.

I took several days "off" and by that I mean I still ran, but only for 1 mile (to keep my streak alive) and did some serious cross training to help make up for the rest.  I also bought some insoles to help cushion that part of my foot and am doing other things to "take it easy".  I'm seeing some success and although I've missed some big long runs that I had planned, it's better to miss it now than closer to Howl.  I'm taking things one day at a time and being very, very careful!

So, I leave tomorrow on vacation.  I will be completely MIA for about 2 weeks.  Where we are going there is no wifi and while I do have my phone I don't really want to blog on that little thing.  Plus we tend to use this time away from "the world" to take a step back and not be so digitally/social media addicted dependent.  If anything I'll be posting things on Instagram, but that's it.  The rest of my time will be filled with my family, friends and plenty of time in the Word of God.  Sprinkle in some boating, swimming, archery, climbing tower, zip line, kayaking, sand volleyball and SO MUCH MORE, I won't have much time to be paying attention to anything else going on.  I do have some running plans, but some of that is dependent on my foot.  We'll see how things go.

We'll catch up when I get back!