he did all his little tests, all the poking and prodding, twisting and turning. well, your foot is stable, he says. he thinks it's my fascia. he told me to keep doing the pool running to stay fit, wear one of those boots at night--the plantar fasciitis ones that keep your foot stretched--and to roll my foot with a tennis ball during the day. in a week or two I can try and do some short runs, but if there is pain I should stop. but no matter what, I can run the marathon. you might be in pain, but yes, you can run the marathon, he says after about the twenty-seventh time I've re-capped everything he has just told me.
he kept reiterating that there would probably be pain involved. but that it's not going to do any long-termdamage. I can deal with pain. I feel that just being an endurance athlete means you have a better ability to manage pain than the average person. I can do it.
I will have about three solid weeks off the foot. even if I have a stress fracture (which is possible, but the extreme pain in my ankle/foot could also be from the connective tissue pulling on each other--or whatever) that is enough time to get it healed. at least mostly.
he did tell me that I shouldn't run for four to six weeks after. that's okay, I said. once I was done with this marathon, I was going to focus more on biking more anyway! he gave me this look. that, are you kidding me? look. no biking. I can swim and pool run. okay, I can deal with that. I'll just focus on swimteam.
but I can run the marathon. and that's all that matters.
and I can try and run it at a good pace, if I want. I can still try and qualify for boston. we'll see if I can hang with the 3:40 pace group crowd. hopefully the pain isn't out of control. hopefully I haven't lost too much fitness. we'll see. and if nothing else, it's always another state. and that's really the overall goal anyway.
the weekly recap
wednesday: rest
thursday: rest
friday: 45 minute pool run
saturday: 30 minute easy spin + 2 hour pool run [note to self: don't ever try and go to steiner on a saturday morning. especially during the hours of 8 to 9:30am. masters will inevitably take every lane in the pool. every single lane. and even after your thirty minute warm up via the stationary bike, you'll find a lane but will have to share it with the minnows swimteam. eight year old kids splashing all over the place does not a fun pool run make. and then you'll just end up getting kicked out of your lane anyway, because they'll have to set up for the water polo practice. next week I'm hitting the pool at 6am. hopefully my luck will be better.]
4 comments:
So happy for you! Injuries suck! But you sound tough and it takes that mental toughness just as much as the physical, I think! Good luck!
Hey Anna-Jo, I too have been battling Plantar Fasciitis this spring. I find that the first mile or two is the worst, then the pain subsides a bit. I roll with a tennis ball when I think of it. Also a frozen water bottle works well. I had one recommendation from a friend to try acupuncture. She said after 10 treatments the pain was completely gone! I have no idea how acupuncture works though, do you pay by the visit? Anyway, good luck with it.
acupuncture, huh? interesting... I would have never thought of that before.
so do you wear one of those splints at night? I haven't ordered one yet. sunday night I slept with a hiking boot on and wrapped an ace bandage around my foot and then up around my knee, so it would pull my foot in a flexed position. that worked pretty well. last night my husband was like, just wear a ski boot! so I did. that lasted about two hours before I woke up with half my foot asleep and just a general feeling of uncomfortableness. the ski boot did work better at holding my foot in that flexed position, though. but maybe I should just break down and order one...
The guy at the running store told me if I knew anybody who recently had their leg in a cast to hit them up for the cut off part and sleep in that.
I also bought new fancy $35 insoles for my running shoes, they really make a difference. My wife (a doctor in training) said she had a recommendation from another doc about a brand called tuli. I couldn't find them, so I just bought another brand.
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