Injuries

Even the best made plans can come back to kick you in the ass sometimes. My last post about running talked about my training plan for Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge. Unfortunately, less than two weeks after that post, the plan was already shot.

The first weekend of my plan had me running 10 miles on Saturday and 12 miles on Sunday. The Saturday run seemed to be going fine until mile nine, when the big toe on my right foot started to feel numb. I had never felt anything like this before, but I finished the run, hoping it was a fluke or something that would heal up overnight. Sunday I ran again and got to right about the same spot, nine miles in, and the toe went numb again... Stubbornly I finished my run again in quite a bit of discomfort, but knew that something was definitely wrong.

The ache in my plantar fascia started that night and I knew that it wasn't going to be a quick recovery... Somehow I managed to mess up my right leg to the point where my hip, knee, Achilles, and plantar fascia all seemed to be the source of my injury at some point or another between late-August and mid-September. By the second week in September, I thought I was getting close, the aches were smaller and milder. Not surprisingly, my mood improved. Then one random day at work, the plantar fascia in my left foot started twinging. At first I thought my body was just playing a joke on me. I hadn't ran in a week and a half, hadn't been working out much, there's no way that it could be giving out on me... It was.

To speed up the story, I finally started running again on the 30th of September, and considering I have the Haunted Hustle (half marathon) on October 13th, any hope of a good time (or pretty much even enjoying that race) have gone out the window. Thankfully riding a stationary bike at the Princeton Club helped me keep my legs somewhat strong, so I will be able to finish it.

Thinking back, I can remember five "major" injuries since I started running over seven years ago. An ITB issue right before I did my first half marathon (which I stubbornly still ran), plantar fascia issues after each of my first two marathons (Madison and Chicago), ITB again after Green Bay (though delayed a month or so, which made that one extremely frustrating), and then this bout with my plantar fascia (almost four months after Flying Pig, so it is hard to blame that for these issues).

All of this being said, the timing of the injuries is probably the best for still doing Goofy's. I still have plenty of time to get in the long runs I need. Which is easy to say, but when you really just want to be running, it is still hard to convince yourself everything will be fine.

Today's run: 10 miles - 73:50 - First double digit mile run since the aforementioned injuries started... Six days until the Haunted Hustle.