foot injury Archives - Wandering Dawn

~~I think~~ I have a foot injury. There. I said it. I started developing pain on the inside of my right foot above my arch on Saturday, January 25th. On Sunday January 26th I did a long run anyway, and didn’t mention a word about the gradually increasing foot pain that developed towards the end of my run. Then, on Monday morning January 27th I woke-up to a visible bruise on the spot of the pain. Shit. And this is how my foot injury developed.

See that bruise on the top of my foot there? Yeah. That.

I haven’t said a peep on here since Christmas. At first it was because I was so busy loving and living life! I didn’t make the time to sit down and blog about Boston Marathon training, working with a new coach, living life as a fiancée, or wedding planning. I still want to blog about all the joyous things in my life, but I’m going to save that for another day. Today, I’m ready to admit I have a problem. A foot problem.

Week 1: Denial. Inner monologue: Oh just a bruise from my new custom orthotics. I ran really hard and fast on Saturday, and I probably got a bruise from all the pressure I was putting on my orthotics which weren’t allowing my feet to collapse like they wanted to. A bruise is no big deal. At least it’s not a REAL injury like last year.

My coach told me to take 3 days off from running and then reassess because taking 3 days off is better than taking 3 weeks off…

Week 2: Worried…but I only skipped certain runs. I still did a 10k. I just ran through the pain the last half because it “wasn’t that bad”. Sound familiar? (I’m an idiot.)

Cardiff Kook 10k

Week 3: Panic. I finally decided to call it an injury and I’m not running until the pain goes away. I got my foot looked at by a professional, and have been rolling it on a frozen water bottle and popping pills to reduce the inflammation. I’m RICE’ing, spinning, ellipticalling, aqua jogging, strength training, massaging, stretching, and resting. I’m also stewing. Whyyyy is this happening to me, again?

Foot pain isn’t new to me. If I think back to my very first marathon in 2011, I remember experiencing foot pain a couple of weeks before the race. Luckily it wasn’t serious enough to keep me from the start and finish line. Then in 2012 when I was training for what turned out to be 1 full marathon, and 2 Ironmans, my foot pain got serious. Luckily I had a coach to keep me on track and I filled my time with other workouts and ART sessions. 2013 guess what? Foot pain resurfaced, but I still managed to train through it and PR at Eugene and achieve a Boston qualifying time, even though my coach cautioned me that I would probably hurt myself. Yep. I was in 1 million pieces once I crossed the finish line, bawling my eyes out, and I could barely walk for several days after that. (Whatever. I PR’d!!) Late 2013 I finally invested in pricey custom orthotics (thanks mom!) after much persuasion. In 2014, orthotics caused me to develop new foot pain. Different spot. Different foot. WTF? My feet hate me. (Long story short, my feet are hyper-mobile and kinda cray cray.)

So now what?

First of all, I’m updating my custom orthotics because those clearly aren’t working for me. I’m training without any orthotics in the meantime, and I can tell it’s making a difference. Definitely less of that “bruised” feeling.

Mentally, I’m going back and forth between optimism (I can still break 3:30 and PR at Boston! All this rest is good for me!) and severe pessimism (I’m not even going to be able to finish Boston because of severe foot pain at mile XX.) Physically, I have no idea if I’m doing enough to nurse my foot back to health (RICE, stopping running) while simultaneously trying to train for my first ever Boston Marathon which is now only a short 2 months away. Looking at the BIG picture, if I don’t PR, it won’t be the end of the world. If I can’t even make it to the starting line due to an injury, however, well that will be an entirely different story, so I’d prefer not to think about that.

If you’ve ever suffered an ongoing injury, I’m sure you can empathize with me right now. It feels like taking time off from running is the worst thing in the world. But when I start to get down, I try to fill my head with positive thoughts to put things into perspective. (I’m getting married this year! I already qualified for Boston, and I get to run it this year! Life is good!!)

Thanks for listening to me get honest and admit that I have a foot injury. Same story. Different year. Different foot. Training with a chronic injury is a real problem that so many runners face, even though I really wish it wasn’t. So what have I learned this time around?

Don’t push through the pain, no matter how insignificant you think it may be.

Back to my RICE, and hopefully, the road to recovery!

What do you do to keep yourself sane while sidelined from running due to an injury?

This dishes holder is actually much better served as an ice bucket

25 days to go until Ironman Cozumel and I’m trying not to FREAK OUT. Why? My foot pain has returned!

I’m in Las Vegas for work Monday-Friday this week, and I was already worried about how this trip would affect my Ironman training. I brought my bike pedals, bike shoes, and a pedal wrench so I could hopefully turn the hotel spin bike into something that more closely mirrors my bike that I couldn’t bring with me.

As soon as my plane touched down in Vegas, I realized I was sick. Crap. That was what I thought was going to be my biggest problem of the week. I hit up Target and bought a variety of cold meds and Zicam. Monday night was the worst of it, so I decided to work the SEMA show Tuesday morning.

I was literally on my feet from 8am-130pm before sitting down once. I wore TOMS thinking those would be a perfect comfy option to wear at the show. After I got back to my hotel room, had lunch, and went to stand up again, it felt like my heel was bruised. WTF? Not again! I stayed in bed until I had to walk back to the show and wore Converse this time. Still no relief. The pain increased all the way to dinner, and I was limping. I tried to stay off my foot as much as possible, and as soon as I got back to my hotel room, I went straight to the ice bucket.

My hotel room doesn’t have a bathtub (shower only), so I decided to make use of a trash can for my DIY ice bath.

DIY Hotel Room Ice Bath

1. Fill ice bucket completely with ice from hotel vending machine

2. Line a trash can (or 2) with a plastic bag

3. Dump ice in trash

4. Fill trash can with cool water to desired height

5. Stick foot in ice bath for up to 20 minutes

makeshift ice bath

I was in tears for the first 4 minutes because my foot was stinging so badly and because I was very afraid that my foot injury had returned. I haven’t had foot pain in a good amount of time. It originally started on August 17th, and I couldn’t even walk without pain or limping. It lasted for about 1 month, and got better week by week. Now, I’m back to trying to do everything in my power to keep it from getting back to how bad it was back then.

I got Jeremy on the phone, and he gave me an amazing pep talk on Ironman Cozumel. (He always knows how to calm me down.)

I need to:

– Stay positive. Worrying won’t make anything better. It will only cause unnecessary anxiety.

– Take it one day at a time. I shouldn’t worry about how many days are left until my race. (25. ah hem.) I need to focus on today and tomorrow, and just take it day by day.

– Remember that my body will know when it’s race day. The body is capable of incredible things. Even if I have foot pain on race day, I will get through it. I don’t care if I am crawling across the finish line, as long as I FINISH!

– This is part of the journey that will make finishing the Ironman even more incredible. The race is going to be one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. The journey to get to race day is also not easy. (Juggling work, injuries, 15 hour training weeks, illness, travel, lack of free time, no money for anything other than triathlon, etc). It is probably why so few people attempt such a distance…and why those people think I am crazy. 🙂

And with that, I’m off to find a place where I can swim laps before I’m on my poor foot again all afternoon for work. Ohhh Vegas.

Do you have any other tips to share on how to stay mentally strong until race day?