Mystery Solved

Well, my long standing foot mystery is finally solved.  I took all last week off from running after the marathon.  I even did very little walking to try and stay off it as much as possible.  I would go to bed at night and it would be fine, then I would wake in the morning and not be able to walk on it.  I could push on my heel with no pain.  Very odd.  So maybe it was something other than a heel bruise.  So I went searching on the internet and also called my PT to run through what was going on to see what he knew.  Well I figured it out before I even talked to him (but did confirm with him when he called me back).  I have achilles tendinitis.  Everything that was going on last week matched to every one of these symptoms.  Ugh!  I looked back and this has been a problem since November.  Double UGH!!!  So now that I finally know what the problem is, how do I get it fixed without ruining my whole season.  I talked to the PT and my mom who talked to the PT's she works for and came up with a game plan.  I have a Strassburg sock, so I have to wear that at night, ice....lots!, continue using my foam roller and use my ProStretch to stretch it out.  All things you would do if you have plantar fasciitis.  I also ordered some KT tape to tape the area which is supposed to help.  My mom said they use a ton of it at the clinic that she works at.  I've heard good things about it so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I figured this all out on Monday.  Oh and Sunday night my pilot light on my water heater went out so I had no hot water until the plumber came over on Monday to fix it.  My life is trying....a lot!  But it has been two mornings, two mornings of running and two nights of wearing the sock and I can definitely see a difference.  I can walk when I get up and I have very little pain when I run.  Knock on wood.  I hope this finally solves my foot issues for good.  I've had foot pain, of some sort, for over 3 years so I'm looking forward to finally being totally pain free. 

Quick Update

Sorry, I haven't posted much lately.  Life has been crazy, to say the least.  I was traveling last week to NY and now I'm trying to get caught up from being gone, training all week here in Green Bay and getting ready to go to NY again next week.  Plus two of my friends are out of town so Asher and I are house sitting.  I got a new position that happens to be based out of Buffalo, NY and have been training on this new position with my new co-workers.  I got to tour Buffalo a little last week, go to a fancy dancy sales meeting/dinner and got to get to know my new co-workers better.  I took just a couple pictures and will post them in the next few days.....hopefully. 

Yesterday I went to the doctor for my heel.  It was a good thing, I made the appointment a month ago but with my crazy schedule and the doctor being super booked this was the first I could get in, and my heel is killing me!!  I changed my shoes last week to only run in my Saucony ProGrid Guide 2's and not at all in my Brooks Adrenaline.  I also stopped wearing my orthotics to try and pin point where this heel problem is coming from and why it's not getting better.  My foot was pretty good last week and I ran three days in a row while in NY.  I haven't run three days in a row with minimal pain in a long time.  It's usually extremely painful while walking into work after running that morning but the pain subsides during the day and was pretty good by the end of the day.  So it does seem to be improving but not a ton.  So yesterday I finally got to go see Dr. Ebben.  This guy is awesome.  He is a sports medicine doctor for Bellin.  I saw him back in Nov 08 when my feet were bothering me and I needed orthotics.  We talked for a long time, about my running, my feet, my shoes and my orthotics.  My orthotics are terrible, it took us a year to get them to a point where I could actually run on them and I'm not convinced they aren't the cause of my heel problem.  He was not happy that it took so long to get my orthotics right and also thinks they could be the source of my heel pain.  The guy that made my orthotics is frustrated and has told me my feet just aren't made to run, so I should give up the idea of ever running pain free.  Well Dr. Ebben totally disagreed with that.  I was pain free before, I can be pain free again.  I was very happy to hear that.  So we got an X-Ray of my heel, just to make sure there wasn't a stress fracture or a bone spur (which there wasn't) and came up with a plan to get this better.  I am going to go to a new PT and get reset for orthotics.  We are going to start from scratch.  (I was so excited to hear this, I don't like my current ones, and they aren't comfortable at all.)  He also gave me an anti-inflammatory for my heel and said I just have a deep tissue bruise and this should help heal it.  We also talked about next steps if the new orthotics don't help my feet, which included a trip to see a foot specialist in Milwaukee.  He doesn't think it will come to that but he wanted to prove to me that we will get this better and that I don't have to give up something I love.  I was very relieved to hear that.  It was a good trip. 

And this morning I ran my speed day virtually pain free.  It was the best feeling in the world.  Something I've been waiting for since 2008 when my feet started bothering me.  Now for a long term solution where I don't need drugs to help me run pain free and life will be great.

P.S.  I will also try and post my last two weekly recaps today.  I know they are really late.

The Results Are In.....

Today was my first day back running in almost a week.  It was a balmy -3 with wind chills of -13.  My left toes were freezing and my quads were red when I got done but it was great being out there again.  My feet don't feel any better (or worse) than they did before the small break.  They were a little tight when I first started but once I got warmed up and my achilles were warm everything seemed to flow much better.  I wonder if some of my heel problem is caused by tight achilles.  Something to work on I guess.  I iced when I got to work so hopefully functions normally tomorrow.

Asher was thrilled to go running today.  He had a frosty beard and his new red shoes on and he had a blast.  Here is a picture of him with his red shoes on.  His frosty beard melted as soon as we got inside. 

We saw something kind of funny today.  There was a guy at this stop light, that we were waiting at, turning while eating a donut giving us a look like we were the crazy ones.  One day we had a guy smoking a pipe shaking his head at us as he drove through the round about as we ran through it.  And another morning some girl drove by us and yelled at the top of her lungs that we were crazy.  It was November and I had shorts on so I'm not sure if it was that or the fact that it was 4:30 in the morning.  Either way she seemed pretty convinced that we were crazy!  Too each their own kind of crazy I guess.  I think donuts, smoking pipes and staying up all night at the bars is crazy.  I guess it takes all kinds. :) 

Heel Update and Other Misc. Items

Well today marks my 4th day since my last run, my 18 miler last Saturday.  This actually turned out to be a good week to take off since the feels like temperature this morning was -12 and I probably wouldn't have taken Asher out anyway since I don't like to take him out if it's that cold.  Even saying that, I am missing it and Asher is majorly missing it.  I think he's even a little ticked at me for not taking him.  I try and explain but he just doesn't seem to understand, or really care, he just wants to run.  And to top it off I'm not really sure if my heel is any better.  It doesn't really hurt when I push on it like it did before but sometimes I think I feel some pain.  I have been wearing my gel heel cups in every pair of shoes and icing at least twice a day, sometimes even three times so I sure hope it's all in my head and my heel really is doing better. 

I have been biking a ton this week, 4 times for 6 hours in the last two days and I'm going to go pool running tonight.  Last night I took Jeff through my weight routine.  He did pretty good, he did about 1/2 to 2/3 of the workout.  We did find out he doesn't have any tricep strength which is something he will have to work on.  Brad and I used to lift pretty regularly a couple years ago and I could tell last year when we didn't.  It's not always the most fun but crank the music, dance a bit with Asher and the time flies.