Training May 15 - 21/Paws in the Park

Mon-weights, 63 min, stretch

Tues- Jaira's Jaunt, 7.1 mi, 58:47, 8:17/mi; I wasn’t sure how far I was going to run, but decided to do the entire course after the first 2 miles since legs felt pretty good. The hills were tough for me though.

Wed-Met with my physical therapist for the first time to evaluate my ankles. My ankles are causing me to severely overpronate so that every time I step down a lot of the weight is distributed on my inner right ankle and outside left ankle. My arches are collapsing inward with the right one worse than the left. The right inside ankle has pain while running and the left hurts after running long. Every time I run long, I am basically spraining my left ankle which is causing stiffness, pain, and swelling. The PT says that my recent pain/discomfort in my right leg (top inside of tibia) is likely caused by my ankle problem. He had me complete some walking and standing tests and it was quite obvious to me that I have a problem. I can’t walk like a normal person.

The only treatment is orthotics (arch supports) and we are starting with over the counter. He told me to get the biggest arch supports that I can find and maybe new shoes. I purchased a pair of Mizuno, Wave Inspire which were recommended at the store. At first, the PowerStep arch support felt a bit severe, but by the end of the night they felt better. The ankles look a lot straighter. These should allow me to run more efficiently and with less effort. I’m also wearing the arch supports in my other shoes since it makes it much easier to walk as well. I am supposed to wear shoes as much as possible and it is difficult anyway for me to walk without shoes. He also gave me some exercises to do to help strengthen my feet and ankles.

Thurs-Rain Run, 7.1 mi, 51:15, 7:13/mi; I ran with the new shoes and inserts. Everything felt okay and a very decent run although I should probably have run only 2 – 3 miles in the new shoes to get used to them.

PT exercises, 10 min

Fri-I met with the PT again and today learned a few more exercises and a couple stretches. He wants me to soak my feet in cold water every night for 10 min plus ice the tibia area. I’m also supposed to limit my runs to about 4 miles for now, but can run as fast as I want to run. I also have to do the new exercises twice per day. Exercises/stretches take about 18 min to complete.

Saturday-Paws in the Park 5K (actually about 3.4 miles)
The dogs didn’t seem to suspect anything unusual on Saturday as we dressed for our run. I took them both out for a walk before we left. Then we loaded them into the car and they were overly excited in anticipation of getting to run. We arrived about 30 minutes early so they had plenty of time to sniff and growl at other dogs. Rusty takes more offense to the sniffing and Bruno doesn’t seem to mind.

We were told to line up runners without dogs and then runners with dogs. This didn’t make any sense to me since the runners with dogs always start faster. There were no runners without dogs brave enough to get in front so several runners with dogs were in front at the start line. There was one tall runner with his dog and they both looked fast so I figured I wouldn’t have a chance to beat him unless he had a problem with his dog.

We were off to a fast start with Rusty pulling. For a brief moment I noticed Hugh and Bruno not far behind us. I was in second place and the fast guy was already pulling ahead. This run was on the MKT trail and an out and back. The first mile was 6:20 and Rusty had already started to slow down a bit. I held the leash loosely but was slightly pulling him from that point. The second mile was about 7:04. I was not getting closer to the guy in first place so I knew we weren’t going to win this year. The last leg of the race we ran in 8:30, and finished in 21:54. However, 2 people with GPS’s said they had 3.4 and 3.5 miles and I suspect that was correct since several people’s times were slower than they expected. I expected to finish in about 20 minutes with Rusty based on last year’s time.

Hugh finished 4th person/male with dog. Bruno kept going and didn’t stop once during the race and no potty incidents on the course. No runners without dogs finished ahead of the first 4 guys with dogs. Unfortunately, only 1st place in this race gets a prize so we went home without anything (other than a free frisbee and tennis ball from one of the vendors), but the dogs seemed to really enjoy the race and seeing the other dogs and people.

Sun-Boatman Hill Road, 4 miles, 38:53, 9:43/mi; I felt tired so took it very easy.

PT exercises twice, 36 min

The tibia is feeling better and ankles are fine. As soon as I go 2 days in a row without any tightness or pain, I will know for sure if it is cured. It seems to be a little less each day and at times, there is no problem at all. The ankles are fine, but the real test will happen whenever I start to run long again. Miles are really low, but I guess now is a good time to heal everything. I’m uncertain as to what I will do for training since 4 mile runs were not in the plan, but at least I can run shorter races and fast for now. I don’t really want to push it too much and run long until everything feels right.

Weekly running miles: 21.5

YTD: 766.9