Bizarre...

Monday I ran a fairly relaxed 8km at lunch...for the first 4 km the pain was annoying but not too bad...for the second half it was really quite painful and I was cringing with each step. I came back to work after lunch pretty bummed and I could barely walk for the rest of the day/evening.

After all of the advice I received from my previous post and from others, I decided it really was ok if I took a full month off from running (and a really good idea) to see if that would be enough to heal it. When I thought about it longer I realized a month off is really not that bad. When I went to Thailand 2 years ago I was off from running for a full month and came back and started back up training for a marathon the next week...albeit I started slow with shorter runs...but it wasn't really a big deal. So that made me happy and I was then fine with the decision to take my month off.

Then tuesday I decided it would be my first day at the gym doing other cardio...I did a half hour of elliptical and my foot felt great. Then I thought I wonder if I just go on the treadmill for a little bit how will my foot feel? I ran for a half hour...absolutely pain free! I was going at a pretty slow pace but had no pain! WTF? I know, just retarded right? The pain often comes after I stop running and is quite bad in the evening and the next morning but it didn't even come back that night or next morning. I'm excited and maybe the treadmill will be the way to go for a while as I try to heal this. I'm sure the nice soft surface is definitely a big help!

Monday night I had slept in my compression socks and spent a good hour with high heat from my heating pad on my calf so that must have been a big help as well for sure. I know a big cause of PF is due to tight calves and I guess that's definitely a big issue for me although I never feel like they're particularly tight! That was definitely the problem last winter though when I had PF for 6 months before Boston...but I did manage to get rid of it with lots of stretching and heating of the calves and wearing compression socks.

Anyhow, I took yesterday off and i'm going to try some elliptical after work to warm up and then try some more running on the treadmill tonite to see how I do. If I experience any pain then I'll immediately stop...I promise :) I was pretty pumped though after tuesday's little run! Wish me luck!

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Waterton with Andrew, his friend and the 2 dogs for a weekend of hiking and camping...i'm pretty pumped! Hopefully i'll come back with some sweet pics to show you next week! Have a great weekend!!

deb