Borrowing a few lines from Toby Keith:
I wanna talk about me
Wanna talk about I
Wanna talk about number one
I don’t typically break out into song (well…not outside the
shower anyway), but today is day for celebration. You're probably asking... what's to celebrate in late August? Is he happy summer is almost over? Is it his birthday, anniversary or some other special occasion? The answer to all is no. I love summer and my birthday and anniversary are both in May. What I'm celebrating is that for the first time in roughly
four months I was able to run pain free!
Let’s rewind back to January 1st. My New Year’s
resolution was to run at least 1 mile every day in 2008. And by mid-March I was
well on my way to achieving my goal. I had actually stepped it up – the
lowest mileage day I had up to that point was 2 miles. I had built a great base
to start training for the late spring races I wanted to run and would be in GREAT shape for the fall racing season. Then it all fell
apart.
After running one day the bottom of my foot started to hurt.
I thought maybe I overdid it a little or that maybe I just stepped the wrong
way. So after a few days of RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) therapy
I tried it again. Only this time the pain was 10 times worse. Unfortunately at
this point I knew exactly what it was – Plantar Fasciitis. Plantar Fasciitis is basically tendonitis on the bottom or your foot, which can be caused by the bottom of you foot stretching too far (usually caused by sudden wait gain) or a bone spur on you heal. In my case it was most likely caused by adding roughly 12 lbs (the weight of my backpack w/laptop) to my bodyweight. I ran home from work a few too many times.
Long story short… I was a good health care consumer and
rather than rushing off to the doctor I tried a conservative treatment path, taking
Advil, icing my foot and generally staying off it as much as possible. All the
research I had done indicated that it takes roughly three to four months for
Plantar Fasciities to heal. But after
four months of pain I had enough. My foot had gotten a little better, but it
wasn’t progressing any further, so I made an appointment with a foot and ankle
specialist.
After an X-ray determined that there was no bone spur
(thankfully, because that meant surgery) or stress fracture he recommended a
shot of cortisone and some anti-inflammatory medication. I’ll be completely
honest with you – I HATE SHOTS! But I said okay, because I was done limping
around. Now I’ve had enough injuries to know that when he said, “you’re going
to feel a pinch and then discomfort…” that this was doctor speak for – it’s
gonna hurt! And he wasn’t lying – a shot in the bottom of your foot isn’t a
pleasant experience, but the 30 seconds or so of pain was well worth it!
Because once the bruise from the shot disappeared I had no pain in my foot and
one week after the shot I was cleared to run.
So I’m back to running and with a little luck I’ll be able
to get back into reasonable enough shape to run the Army 10 Miler held here in Washington, D.C.
in October. And more importantly I can start training for my ultimate goal of completing an Ironman Triathlon next year –
see… I turn 40 next year and I’m not going quietly.
Jason
