2 weeks off but coping well

Running
This won't be doom and gloom "poor me", a positive mental attitude is called for here. I honest to goodness felt 90% fine for yesterday's race, but you guessed it have pulled up sore again. Deciding to nip this thing in the bud I took myself off to a Podiatrist this afternoon at The Melbourne Sports Medicine Clinic, thoughtfully located right near my office. I saw an excellent Pod who was very sympathetic to my plight and is keen to get me back out running. Time to stand up and take a bow Ewen, PF it is, albeit a MILD case (can I just stress that again please M I L D). But, believe it or not this is not a running injury, it is an injury that will briefly stop me from running. I have, according to the Pod "extremely" high arches which predisposes me to PF, but the correct running shoes have kept me free of the affliction. Turns out it is my damn normal shoes that have done it. I thought I was doing the right thing by not wearing high heels and going with the flats instead, nope, they are the worst thing for my type of foot because there is not arch support. It all makes sense now, the boots I wore through most of winter were fine, but come the arrival of warmer weather I get into the flat ballet shoes and PF here I come.

Right now the foot is all strapped up to keep the tendon stretched, which believe it or not feels great. This has to stay on until Wednesday night (bag on foot for the shower), then has to come off for some stretching. Then back on Thursday morning for more stretches and strapping for another 3 days, then more stretching and icing and all going well Monday 10th December back out for a run.

And before I get yelled at for running yesterday the Pod said that would not have set me back because for the rest of the week I was doing all the right things with the stretching, icing and massage. The strapping I have now will keep the tendon streched so it can heel, apparently it is the steps first thing in the morning that do most of the damage so this will help prevent that.

The upshot of this was that it was back on the exercise bike this evening, 60 minutes and 28.6 km of intervals. I'll be doing this for the next 2 weeks so I had better get used to it, though next week when the strapping comes off I may give this water running lark a go. So there you go, a common running injury but in my case not caused by running. Needless to say I'll be off to some shops recommended by the Pod for some new shoes to wear to work. I was fearful of having to get into some granny shoes but surprisingly you can get some rather cool looking Hush Puppies these days, the Pod had a great looking pair of lofa's on.

The first person to say I told you so gets popped in the nose :-)

PS - Rather amusing sight trying to shower after my ride, thumb covered in a finger cut from a rubber glove because I still need to keep it dry and foot wrapped in plastic to get the tape dry, ya gotta laugh really.