Best Laid Plans...

As the saying goes!

I was well on my way into week 3 of my marathon training plan, had an unbelievable 800s workout that showed I was making progress. It was a ridiculously hard workout but also very rewarding, I felt so much more confident after this workout, it was awesome.

The next morning I got up for work, took a step out of bed and nearly fell over with pain. I've never felt this kind of pain before, ever. I hobbled out of bed, wincing and headed straight to the internet! I started researching the pain, where it was located, what it felt like, etc. I did a self-diagnosis and declared it Plantar Fasciitis. As I continued to read about recovery/healing I started to become worried that it was going to seriously affect my marathon training.

Fast forward to 8 days later, I've been able to consecutively run for the last 3 days with runs totaling 1.5 miles, 2 miles and 3 miles. I was supposed to race a 10k this weekend, sadly this is not happening. I hope that in another week I'll be back to my regular schedule, but really I'm taking it 1 day at a time.

So far my daily routine has included icing, stretching the foot, stretching the calf, calf raises and rolling my foot on a golf ball. I've heard from several people the recommendation of rolling my foot on a frozen bottle of water. I'm not sure I see the difference between that and just icing my foot and rolling it on a golf ball? So far I'm seeing progress so my method must be working to some degree, so I might as well stick with it until it doesn't work anymore. Right?!

No longer injury free...

When I finished my marathon a couple weeks ago, the worst injury I anticipated was sore muscles. The day following the marathon I ended up having a pain in my foot, mostly when I put weight on it. It was a pain I've never experienced before and assume was a result of the marathon. I immediately emailed my coach fearing the worst and started the online research for self diagnosis! After all the back and forth emails and my online searching it seemed maybe it was just a bruise. I stayed off of it as much as possible for the next 6 days... On the 7th day there was no pain, hooray!

So, since I was pain free and past my 7 day "no running" requirement from the marathon, I was itching to get out there for a run. This past Monday I did just that, after work I laced up and headed out in the neighborhood for an easy run, close to 6 miles. After I was done I felt GREAT! I was SO excited to be back running again, and NO pain in the foot. Yay!

Then Tuesday came... I'm out at the grocery store to pick up a couple things and after about 10 minutes of walking around in the store, it happens... the pain is BACK. Damn. I limp my way through check-out and back to the office... I skip my workout for the evening to go home and rest it.

Wednesday... wake up and walk around for 5 minutes, pain is there still. Suck. Get through work and head to a spin class, no pain during spinning, yay! Got a great workout in, feeling good. Take a quick shower and leave the gym, no pain still. I get home walking around doing chores, it's back.

Today... wake up and immediately I can tell it is still hurting. This. Really. Sucks.

I've got an appointment with an orthopedic guy next Tuesday, but I'm sad to say that I won't be running until this is resolved. I'm also starting to think it's not a bruise but something worse. Hopefully I'm wrong. My next marathon training won't start until Aug 1st, so at the very least I have about 7 more weeks to get this foot problem fixed before I will be seriously bumming.

Wish me luck, I need it. :(