Friday Failures

In the last two days–actually on Wednesday, I discovered two things: 1) I couldn’t put my full weight on my right heel when I got out of bed and 2) my semester was starting a full week earlier than I had been thinking. Epic fails.

Wednesday morning, I got out of bed and could barely put weight on my right heel. My right ankle/foot had been bothering me a little bit, feeling super tight, but I thought little of it. The minute I realize I had heel pain, my mind flashed to plantars fasciitis. I’ve never had it, never really looked into it, so I wasn’t even sure if I was on to something. However, I had heard people say that the pain was the worst immediately after getting out of bed.

I’m not going to lie. I thought with all my form stuff and partially minimal shoes, etc., I was “immune” from this common runner’s injury. So I started Googling the heck out of it and messaging the friends who’ve dealt with such issues in the past. The most useful link in my VERY brief Google searching was actually on Wikipedia (here), mostly because I liked the image of the various locations and degrees of pain. I had thought plantars happened more along the arch and midpoint of the foot. When I saw that it was most concentrated smack in the flat of the heel, I freaked out. I quickly flipped through various strategies of dealing with it–rocking back and forth and keening in horror was one. I went with contacting my running coach/massage therapist/nerd of all trades, Bill Underwood. I knew he would be able to give me some ideas as to WHY I got it, treat it, and give some tips on treating it further. I’m not going to lie, if I already have a good idea what the issue is, I’d rather bypass the whole doctor/PT thing and go straight to my own remediation plan. I don’t have the time, energy, or patience to go somewhere X times a week and pay someone to watch me do exercises I could do at home…

Getting a massage from Bill is like childbirth. Unmedicated childbirth. You know it will be rewarding, but it’s painful as f*. There is screaming and cursing, though no tears. Or blood. There is sometimes bruising. But he’s awesome and it works. He’s also funny and free-flowing with the running advice and nerd talk.

Anyhow, we did a rundown of why I was getting plantars now when I “hadn’t” changed much. Um. Except, it turns out I had. I have been doing suddenly some longer trail runs. Oh, and the last two trail runs were in new shoes. Oh, and I’m switching up shoes that are drastically different (stability vs neutral). And I’m still heel-striking like a mofo…So. Yeah. Bill was like, “Um, just going for all the stuff, huh?”

Ok, so let’s start with the trail stuff. Whenever you drastically/significantly switch up running surfaces, you want to be careful. Different surfaces require different things of your feet and legs. Sudden long mileage (ahem, particularly in new shoes) on a different surface doesn’t give your body enough time to adapt. I also foolishly believed that switching to another minimal type trail shoe (Altra Superior) would be okay without a huge breaking in process, because I was already running in partially minimal shoes and the trail would make it okay (for some reason, I want to act like the trail is a “buffer” for things…yeah, no logic).

I also tend to have a “stable” of shoes I rotate through a lot, because I’ve read that can be better for you–having more than one pair to rotate through. So, this is my shoe collection from the semester. To be fair, I was getting ready to rotate two pairs out, one was a mostly recovery pair, and one was a pair I kept mostly from cross-training. But still…

Row 1: Saucony Kinvara 5 (both, although I swear that white one is different). Row 2: Saucony Guide, Brooks Pure Cadence, and Newton Energy.

The Kinvara’s are hands down my favorite. I like the Brooks Pure series, but I’ve read they’ve been getting narrower in their updates so I’ve avoided them (I’ve run in the Flow and the Cadence). I WANT to like Newtons, and I liked the Gravity ok though it felt a bit clunky at times. The Energy are more streamlined, but I found them lackluster. And the Guides were an attempt to actually listen to what the “experts” say, which is that I should wear a stability shoe. They felt really chunky, though, and have the highest heel drop in the lot (8 mm) so I’d been using them primarily for recovery runs. However, I decided to take them to California last weekend (I was visiting my sister and her new baby, post to come on that) and wear them on my long run (13-14 miles). I can’t remember my reasoning for it. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not the most logical or rational-thinking at times… I think it was because my ankle had been wonky and I thought they would better support them? Yeah, bad idea.

In my training journal for those runs, I wrote that I hated the Guides. They feel really big and that it forces a heavier heel strike from me. Bill scolded me for switching between so many neutral shoes and a stability shoe, and then throwing in the trail shoe and the trail running, my legs and feet were PO’ed about all the changes I was throwing at them. So I need to make up my mind and decide if I’m stability or neutral. I’m going with neutral, but I also know that I am by nature a heel striker, and somewhat uneven in my strike as well. See picture below.

 

I didn’t have a photo of the heels before I donated them, but you can see from the tread on the lugs of these Newtons, that I’m pushing more heavily from my left foot. Being asymmetrical in running is never good–especially for distance runners.

Because I know I’m a heel striker and this is putting a lot of load on my heels/calves/feet, Bill really encouraged me to make sure I was activating my glutes by either raising my knees higher or really thinking about kicking back when I run and really trying to get on my midfoot. I’m over-relying on smaller muscles in my lower legs and being inefficient in my form, which is causing all kinds of wacky things. I also need to stretch seriously and rekindle my romance with the Grid roller and my Orb. I’ve been getting lazy, which was obvious to Bill as he tried to break my ITB in half and then proceeded to gouge my very tender hips (something I wasn’t aware was tight or sore, sigh).

So. Plan of action. Stick with neutral shoes. I think I’m going to try and see Bill at Roadrunner Sports where he works this weekend to try some new ones. Work on my form. Fit in yoga at least once a week. Foam roll/massage like crazy. And I took two days off from running. I even *gasp* cross-trained. Seriously, that was the first time in almost a year. Bill doesn’t think it’s plantars yet, just angry tight feet and legs, but I need to get on it if I don’t want it to get there.

Anyhow, gonna head out and try to do a short run to test the waters before tomorrow’s long run. And it’s misty raining. Great. Happy Friday everyone! And hope you get out there and do something.

 

Giving/Technical Tuesday

It’s Giving Tuesday. I’ll be honest, the idea of someone telling me what day of the year to give to charity is one I found annoying. But then this morning, I was struggling with feeling overwhelmed with the chaos, horror, and injustice in the world as well. And I write this while basking in the neon glow of my SAD light, but I also just finished donating to two organizations that are in the crosshairs of the craziness around us. And I am feeling better.

My parents, because they’re old school, had sent me money for my birthday. I had debated going to the spa, buying a new Garmin watch (slobber, slobber), or buying a cute outfit. After much wrestling with the idea, I decided that my Garmin 305 worked fine, if a “tad” big and that the 220 wasn’t so much more amazing that I needed a new watch. On my drive in to campus, I was really feeling like I was emotionally drowning with all the horrible news lately. I also felt a little frazzled and raw after going on a small rant in class last night. And I realized that I needed to do something, so I donated my birthday money (that really makes me sound like I’m 7) to two very worthwhile and important groups. While I don’t love just giving money, I also know that with Illinois’ state budget, organizations are really financially struggling. You don’t have to give today, but I hope you do consider giving to an organization this holiday season. Do you really need more stuff? Or do you need to live in a more just and equitable world?

OK, on to the geeky running stuff and the “Technical Tuesday” bit. I bought some running shoes on Black Friday online. I’m not gonna lie, it was 30% off of an older model so it was dirt cheap. However, this made me re-assess (I know, I shouldn’t have done it post-purchase…) whether I needed to rotate these shoes in right away or wait on it. Considering I had 4-5 pairs of shoes in rotation, that was a big question. I realized that I wasn’t sure, which led me down the rabbit hole of Googling “when do I need to replace my running shoes.”

Here’s what I found in short:

• Running shoes GENERALLY last 300-500 miles. For the average runner running in the same shoe, this is around 4 months. However, a 200 mile difference is pretty big and can mean a 2 month difference in replacing your running shoes. e.g., Buying 3 pairs of shoes a year or 2 pairs, or ~$130 (depending on the shoe). This “rule of thumb” is going to vary drastically, though, depending on what kind of runner you are, how you strike the ground, how heavy you are, and what kind of shoe you’re wearing.
• Lower drop or more minimal shoes tend to run down faster because there is less material all around. I run alot in the Saucony Kinvara and they probably last closer to 200-300 miles.
• If there is obvious wear, particularly if it’s uneven or through a layer, on the bottom of your shoes, it might be time to replace them. This is for two reasons: 1) You’ve worn through a layer that is meant to absorb shock and you are now increasing the amount of shock on your legs, which can lead to increased chance for injury. 2) If you are asymmetrical in your stride and it’s obvious from the bottom of your shoe wear, I would consider rotating your shoes out earlier. This is because the more you wear them unevenly, the more likely it is to contribute to your continued asymmetry. I’ve noticed that my Newtons show the greatest difference in wear. The lugs on my left shoe show wear more than my right–and this is visually obvious because I’ve worn down to a different layer of color (I’ll try to upload a picture later). You can even test for unevenness in wear by putting your shoes on a table and gently rocking them to see if they move or checking the heel stack.

This video actually does a nice job of showing you how to check the heel stack.

• If your shoe is abnormally “flexible,” it’s time. So if you can twist it in the middle like you’re wringing a wet towel or if you can bend the toe up and back towards the heel a good amount.
• Finally, the easiest test? Try on a new pair of the same shoe and see how it feels. If it feels amazingly better, you’re due for some new shoes. If it’s “meh,” you’re ok. That’s a hard one to not have a “scientific” test. If you look at the data, though, you lose a pretty significant amount of shock absorption and bounce from the first run out (this is not unlike how you start losing value on a new car the minute you drive it off the lot). This is why you should generally try to use your running shoes for just running and not keep them on all day. You’re losing value!

So how do you keep track of mileage? Back in the day, when I only bought one shoe at a time, I used to write the date I started wearing them on the shoe. However, since I rotate through so many pairs at once, that’s alot harder to keep track of. There are apps out there, or I can even note what shoe I’m wearing on what run in my Garmin Connect. BUT, I’M LAZY. That’s alot of work. Easiest and probably best way? How you feel in the shoe. If you’re feeling like your shoe is starting to feel icky, it’s probably PAST the time you should have swapped them out. I know, it’s a money-making industry. Unless you’re planning on being a barefoot runner, though, that’s part of a good injury-prevention plan.