Well, I finally logged some miles for December. I decided to go for an easy 2-mile run today to see how my heel felt. I had no idea what to expect. I had two main concerns:

• How would my heel feel
• How would I feel while running when I haven’t run a single mile in almost 7 weeks?

For the first quarter mile or so, I could feel a very slight discomfort in my heel. It wasn’t really painful, but I just know it certainly didn’t feel like my left heel which is perfectly fine. After a quarter mile, I stopped feeling any discomfort. Maybe it was because other parts of my body started to feel uncomfortable

I could definitely tell that I wasn’t in the same shape that I as 2 months ago. I didn’t have a HRM, but I know my heart rate was much higher and my breathing quite a bit heavier. I started to notice different parts hurting be it under my feet, my knee, my hips, etc.

One thing I’m glad about is that at least it wasn’t like the first time I started running, but I do know I have to take it easy for a while, if only because of my heel.

My plan is to run 2 miles for the next few days. If I make it through the weekend and Monday without any issues, I’ll go for 3 miles on New Year’s day.

Posted by derek as Training at 8:22 PM PST

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It’s hard to tell if my heel is getting any better.  If I press the area, it still hurts, but it’s been like that for most of the year so I’m not too worried about it.  What is good is that when walking, or going about my day, I haven’t felt any discomfort or pain.  I’m thinking of trying a short 2-mile run on Christmas morning.  Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas present if I can get through that run without any problems.

Since I haven’t been running for a while, I need to think about how do I get back into running.  I can’t imagine it would be like the first time I started running where 90 secs was torture, but I know for sure I can’t go out that and hope to run 10 miles even if my heel isn’t bothering me.  I have to imagine I’ll probably be doing short 3-mile runs for several weeks.

Well, let’s see if I can get through 2 miles and I’ll take it from there.  One good thing is that I don’t feel any sense of urgency to start ramping up my mileage so maybe having to deal with this injury has made me mellow a bit

Posted by derek as Training, Injury at 7:38 PM PST

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I have been trying to rest my heel, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  I can walk without any problems, but there is some very slight stiffness in the mornings.

Every now and again, I will bump my heel and it hurts like hell.

I was due to run the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon this coming weekend, but obviously that isn’t going to happen. I’m hoping to be able to resume running in the new year.

For now, I’ve been doing some Yoga which is certainly helping my flexibility, but I suspect that it may be slowing my recovery.  I need to do something though to maintain some kind of activity.  I’ve also been doing some elliptical work.

Posted by derek as Training, Injury at 11:04 AM PST

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I went out for what was supposed to be a 14-mile run on Sunday, but after 7-8 miles, my heel started to hurt again. I eased up a bit, but after 8.5 miles, I decided to call it a day and rest it.

I haven’t run the whole week in the hopes that it gets better. It’s feeling fine the majority of the time, but sometimes I do notice some slight discomfort while walking. It’s not like it was during the week where I could barely walk, but I’m a bit paranoid and trying to decide when to try another run.

I’ve been doing a lot of elliptical work this week and I suspect that this may be slowing my recovery time. I didn’t do any yesterday and I’ll avoid doing any this weekend to see if that helps with my recovery.

As of today. my half-marathon on Dec 9th is a up in the air.

Posted by derek as Training, Injury at 10:51 AM PST

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This week didn’t turn out as badly as I thought it would have. My right heel was in such a bad state, I wasn’t expecting to be able to run at all. It turns out that on Monday, my heel felt perfectly fine. I was able to walk normally and there was no pain or discomfort. I have to assume that the combination of rest and the anti-inflammatories did the job. I decided to continue to rest on Monday and see how the heel felt on Tuesday morning since it feels worse in the mornings.

On Tuesday morning, my heel still felt great. I decided to do a 3 mile run in the early afternoon. Again, there was no pain and I was able to run. I had to then travel to Louisville, KY on business that night.

Louisville was cold with the lows around 32-33F. I decided to try a longer run on Wednesday morning. I did 5 miles in the coldest weather I’ve run in since last winter. It was around 35F. My heel continued to feel perfect. It was also very satisfying getting up at 5:30 am to run in that cold weather.

Today, back in TX, I did an easy 4-mile run and since my heel now seems to be healed, I’m planning to resume my full training schedule from tomorrow.

In the end, I only ran 12 miles for the week, but I’ll take that. It’s a lot better than zero miles!

Posted by derek as Training, Marathon, Cowtown at 8:34 AM PST

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