Feeling Pain

Well, my last post was about finding happiness, today's post is about feeling pain.

Don't worry, I am not talking emotional pain, this time I am talking physical pain.

As part of my marathon training program, I have been increasing my weekly miles. So long to short runs of 3 miles. Much to my joy, I have also been able to increase my pace times. In fact, I recalculated some of my routes because I couldn't believe that I was running them at that pace. However, after last weeks long run, I noticed a dull pain in my right foot. I didn't think much of it at the time.

To be quite honest, my feet have all sorts of issues since I have increased my milage. I won't get into details, lets just say they looked like they have been used. So this dull pain seemed to effect me in the mornings when getting out of bed and then it wasn't too bad. I moved my runs to the evenings to better fit my schedule. When I did my run on Tuesday, I noticed the pain as I started but it seemed to go away until I was done with my run. Then it hurt. The same thing happened on Wednesday run and then Friday. Between those three runs I did 18 miles and my times were great. Then today I had a "fallback" week were my long run was only to be 9 miles before I increase to 14 next weekend.

As I started out this morning the pain was still in my foot and still dull. That is until I made a sharp right turn at about 6.5 miles in. The dull pain turned to a sharp pain, a very sharp pain. I figured I was still 2.5 miles from home so I tried to run through it but I couldn't. I hobbled a short way until I found a bench. I rested for a few minutes then tried to run again. The pain was too much. After a long walk back home, I took of my shoe to determine that my foot was now showing signs of swelling.

Those of you who know me, know that my primary care doctor goes by the name of Dr. Web MD. Yes I prefer to get medical advice online instead of making that co-pay. However, Dr Web didn't have much insight so I seached out a specialist. After extensive research I determined that what I have is peroneal tendonitis. As much as it kills me, I think I need to take at least a week off from running.

It's frustrating to think that as things started going really well, I was hit with this set-back. However, there is a lesson or two for me to learn here. First, I should have paid closer attention to the dull pain before it became a sharp pain. During my research I learned exactly why it went from a dull to sharp pain and I could have prevented that. Second, I have to learn to adapt and move on. Just because I can't run this week doesn't mean I still can't cross train and get in some good workouts. This set-back doesn't have to be a big deal. I am going out of town this week so it may be easier to cross train then find someplace to run 6 or 7 miles.

I have some stuff to put on it to help it heal (No, I didn't get it from Barry Bonds, it's legit) so hopefully I will be back to running soon. I love to run, so it will be a tough week but I will survive.