If I were a religious man, I’d say God was trying to tell me not to run a marathon.  First it was my foot.  It felt better just as my knee started hurting.  That’s finally feeling better, but now I’ve got the flu.

I was stuffy yesterday, but I got up to run 8 miles with Richie this morning anyway.  I felt great during the run, but almost as soon as we were finished, my entire body started to ache and I just felt like crawling into bed.  Unfortunately, it was one of those rare days where I absolutely could not skip work, so I sat like a zombie all day.  I’m going to bed early tonight and not waking up in the morning until I’m good and ready to wake up.  Hopefully, I can sleep this off.

I slept really well last night.  That makes two nights in a row.  Maybe it’s the cool weather, or maybe it’s because I’ve started drinking my antioxidant cocktail again.  In any case, the last two nights have been out like a log dream filled sleep nights and that’s been great.

I woke up feeling a little tightness in the knee, but it wasn’t too bad.  I was walking around fine.  So, I decided to give my planned 5 easy miles on the treadmill a try.  Things started off quite well.  No tightness at all trhrough the first 3 miles.  After three, it started to tighten up a little but nothing I would consider to be pain.  Just kind of an annoying feeling that something’s not right.  I finished off my 5 miles then walked it off.  I did some upper body strength training and threw in 3 core exercises.  These actually served to stretch things out a bit in the gluteal region.  I felt pretty good the rest of the day.

So, if if I continue feeling as good as I do now, then I’m going to go ahead with my speed interval workout tomorrow.  It’s going to be cold, but I think I’m going to don the tights and do it at the park.  There are 800 m intervals involved and I don’t want to do those on the treadmill.  The cold is the lesser of the two evils in the case.

I’ve been taking it easy lately because of Plantar fasciitis in my left foot.  It’s feeling better, but I’m taking the whole week off from running so as not to reinjure it.  In the meantime, I’ve added a few new stretches and exercises to my routine in order to better prepare my legs for the stresses of the marathon training.  Here’s a little video I found about treatment for Plantar Faciitis:

Todays workout

10 minutes warmup on stationary bike

2 sets Hammer Strength decline press

2 sets Hammer Strength wide grip press

2 sets Pec Fly

2 sets Lat Pulldown

2 sets dumbbell shrugs

2 sets tricep extensions

2 sets inclined bicep curl

1 set toe raises

2 sets oblique curls

1 set abdominal curls

1 60 second plank

I woke up this morning with some pain on the bottom of my left foot.  It was odd because I didn’t step on anything and Sunday was a pretty light day.  I did some light yard work, then pretty much sat around watching TV and playing poker all day.  In my mind, it was the perfect rest day following Saturday’s 10 miler. 

I hit the treadmill for an interval workout and the pain didn’t really bother me all that much until I got to my cooldown.  Then, it was excrutiating.  I had to cut my cooldown to a quarter mile.  I stretched as normal, showered and got dressed.  Walking to the car, the pain was not too bad, but as I went about walking short 10-15 foot distances at work, it kept getting worse and worse. 

It feels like its probably Plantar Fasciitis.  Pressing on the inflamed area does not intensify the pain at all.  In fact, a brief massage temporarily relieves the pain to some extent.  I’ve got a cycling workout tomorrow, so that shouldn’t be a problem.  Then, I’ll re-evaluate myself to see if Wednesday’s 5 mile tempo run is feasible. 

Planned workout

1 mile warmup 

1600 m at 8:57 pace, 400 m RI

1200 m at 8:47 pace, 400 m RI

800 m at 8:42 pace, 400 m RI

400 m at 8:32 pace

1 mile cooldown

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

1600 m at 8:57 pace, 400 m RI

1200 m at 8:47 pace, 400 m RI

800 m at 8:42 pace, 400 m RI

400 m at 8:32 pace

400 m cool down

So, the pain on top of my left foot continued through my tempo run today.  I wore my foot pod on the right foot and the right foot was fine.  The left foot is a little tender to the touch, but not extremely painful.  It gets worse the further I run.  I don’t think it’s a stress fracture.  I’ve done a little bit of research on the problem, and I may just be tying my shoes a little too tight.  In any case, I’ll have two days off from running now, so hopefully that will help.

Planned workout

1 mile warmup

2 miles at 9:32 pace

1 mile easy

1 mile at 9:32 pace

1 mile easy

2 miles at 9:32 pace

1 mile cool down

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

2 miles at 9:32 pace

1 mile cool down

During my mile cool down, I had the motivation to continue with the next mile running, but my foot was beginning to hurt and I didn’t want to jeopardize Saturday’s long run.  I’ll do a strength session tomorrow, take Friday off and try the 9 mile long run on Saturday.

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to create this category and I hope this is the only post it ever gets.  My left leg has gone from general calf tightness to a definate shin splint.  Now, that’s certainly not the worst injury in the world, but I am worried about it turning into a stress fracture if I’m not careful with it.

“Shin splints” is basically a term used to describe any pain in the front of the lower leg.  In my case, it’s my left leg and the pain is a few inches above my ankle on the inside portion of the leg.  The pain is apparently a result of an inflammation of the connective tissue that results from the relative weakness of the muscles on the front of the lower leg compared to those of the rear. 

The best thing to do is the usual RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation).  I’ve been doing the latter three.  It’s the rest part that’s hard for me. 

Planned Workout

10 minutes warmup

2 miles at 7:35 pace, 1 mile easy, 2 miles at 7:35 pace

10 minutes cool down

Actual workout

10 minutes warmup

1 mile at 7:35 pace, 400 m easy, .5 miles at 8:30 pace.

5 minutes cool down.

 I was afraid of hurting myself further, so like Monday I cut the workout short.  I’m not sure what to do about the long run on Saturday.  I’ve been thinking of doing 6 miles, or doing 2 easy miles, or resting completely.  I’d rather rest it and heal it now, then have it fester for the next 27 weeks.  Tomorrow, I’ll go ahead and do a mixed upper/lower body strength workout.