Saturday, June 19, 2010

Times 2

I may have mentioned a time or TWO that my heel has been bothering me when I run. I may not have stressed how excruciatingly painful it can be on runs over 10 miles. Take any type of pain you've had (childbirth, perhaps??) and multiple that by TWO and that's how bad my heel hurts. Tuesday I went for what I hoped would be a long run and WHAM, my heel started screaming and I had to walk TWO miles home. On my toes. Not fun.

UGH. Frustrating is an understatement. This has been going on since before Boston, and exacerbated when I ran Boston. Running a marathon on a bum heel maybe wasn't the best thing. Oh well.

Whoa...I have a marathon in SF in 5 weeks. Yep, just look at that snazzy little countdown calendar off to the side there, kids!! And I haven't been able to train at all for it like I should be. A heel problem will do that, paralyze your training plans. My goal for SF was never to race this marathon, but to use it as a stepping stone, a training run with some great friends, in prep for THE marathon I want to do well this fall. Still, I don't want to die, ya know, like I almost did in Boston. I hoped to be further along with my training at this point...but I'm not. And doubts of running SF are running high. As of the other day, I pretty much went to plan TWO: Survival mode! This genius here finally had a new thought: new shoes. Oh, I've tried different shoes but have always gone straight for the stabilizing shoes, which were what I was told I needed. Stabilizing shoes like to push your foot to the outside. Like to the outside where my heel exactly hurts. I know last blog's little geology lesson probably had you thinking I was some super brainiac...but I hate to report sometimes's that is not entirely true.

So I went and bought TWO new pairs of running shoes, which are cushioned (aka: squishy) and not stability shoes. Why two? Hey, I'm desperate here!!! If one pair doesn't work, try try again. Here's a lovely pic of my beautiful feet in shoes #1. I love how the periwinkle is so sparkly. So me! Yes, that's my hardwood floor. And look, I have TWO feet!

Time for a test run. I already can tell, just walking on them, the squish factor has risen by at least TWO! A good sign. Also, in yet another brainstorm idea (I know, TWO in one day!!), I decided concrete running is probably not ideal for my heel (who'd have thought!) therefore it was trails or treadmill for my little shoe testing. Anything over 66 degrees and I get pretty whiney...it was 82 degrees when I wanted to go for a run to test the shoes so the treadmill it was. I may be the only human, aside from my friend, Garbo, who doesn't mind the treadmill from time to time. I like how the surface is softer, the temp in the room isn't a thousand degrees, and it keeps my pace at a constant. I go to the gym cuz they have super sweet treadmills; I can wear my ipod and watch the little television embedded into this machine....all at once! TWO things to help distract the task at hand are better than none, especially on a treadmill.

I have no idea how far I'm going to run, I just know I haven't been able to run over 13 miles since my return from Boston, TWO months ago. So if I could go 13, great. I keep the pace slow (9:13) and every half mile I do a quarter mile hill at 4%. Not super steep, but enough to make my HR climb. I get to mile 7 and I gotta pee. Hop off, take care of business, look in my bag and see what I have inside to help me. GU! Well, it's actually Hammer Gel, cuz my stomach revolts with GU product. And Cytomax. Perfect. Ingest products, refill water bottle and on I continue. Here's a little fact: I rarely watch television, I just can't sit down and watch anything because I always find a million, or TWO, things which are screaming at me to do instead. I do have it on in the background but it's pretty rare I will ever do more than listen. So you'd think I'd be all over the 99 channels the gym TV's have to offer. Well, I am here to say there is nothing but stupid crap on at noon on a Thursday. Honestly. I was constantly flipping through the channels. At one point I thought I'd brush up on my Spanish, there's a lotta Spanish shows in Colorado.... but I quickly learned I only know TWO Spanish words anymore and was instantly lost and gave up. I'm starting to get a little anxiety building as I'm approaching 9 miles. Let's recap: the heel starts to hurt around mile 10 ..... and I'm soon there. I just keep running and try to not think about it (hahahahaha. Right!). Mile 10. Mile 11....14....no heel pain. NONE! I can feel it like there's a little stick or something irritating it but it doesn't hurt!! I do TWO more miles, for a total of 16, and I am feeling excellent! I'm not tired, I'm not sore, I'm not in heel agony!

I hop off, I don't want to press my luck. I really want the long run, though....so after reading a lot of MarathonMaiden's blog, the queen of 2-a-day runs (and recently a 3-a-day - holy moly!!) I decide I'll go home and rest up (after a much-needed shower. 16 on a treadmill and I was soaked!) and if I felt ok, I'd try for a few miles later that day. So home I went and according to MM, I should take 4 hours off between runs and I should make sure to refuel properly, and try to keep off my feet. I make a protein shake, baked potato and lay on my bed for awhile (feet are UP) and do some writing. I have no idea where my kids are or what they're doing....this is about me today - ha! 8:00 that evening, 6 hours after I finished my 16er, I pop on my treadmill in the basement. No posh gym TV planted 10" in front of my face, but I do have an old clunker TV about 3', this will have to suffice...and trust me, there's some good HGTV on!! I start running. My left hip flexor is tight and my legs a little stiff so I stop and stretch for TWO minutes (stretch?? What's that???) and pop back on. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling great, actually and up the pace to 8:56 - still slow but definitely in my long-run base pace range. 5.5 miles later, I did a TWO-a-day long run and finished with 21.5 miles and ZERO heel problems!!

I'm excited!! TWO exclamation points worth!! Cautiously excited, but I finally feel like there's hope. The entire time I was running, the one thing I kept noticing, whenever I would think about it, was how my heel was not hitting the outside of my shoe when it landed but rather was hitting on the inside, directly opposite of the point of pain. And that, apparently, is keeping the pressure off of whatever is causing the pain. Yay. DOUBLE YAY!!!!

I know I can't make up for the training I've lost, and that's okay...as I said this race isn't about any certain finish line time, it's for training purposes only, but I'm cautiously optimistic that just maybe I can work hard the next few week I have left and at least get a little stronger. The TWO things I can control in my life: my running and my eating, are what's going to fuel my run in a few weeks. And I'm finally excited!!
And just for fun, here's a little TWO facts in Jill world:

- I have twin boys. As most of you know. They look nothing alike and have totally different personalities (yet they have a very special bond). You'd never even know they were related if you saw them.

- I almost always eat two bananas everyday. I love them best when they are slightly green, so I go to the grocery store to get fresh ones at least every TWO days.
- I got TWO speeding tickets last year, one in Tucson when I was there for the marathon. My daughter was there with me and we went to dinner the night before the race. Well, in true A.D.D. form, I forgot my wallet (I hate it when it jumps out of my purse) so I tried to make a "quick" trip back to the hotel to retrieve it. That dinner cost me $150. Totally not my fault!
- I am on week TWO of my summer hiatus. Just sayin...

- Did I ever mention I can't cook? I can't even follow a recipe, apparently. Thursday night, we were taking my daughter's boyfriend out to dinner for his birthday. She wanted to make him a carrot cake, his favorite. I spent a great deal of time finding what looked like a de-lis recipe online and her and I, the TWO of us :), began our cake-making journey. Cake in oven about 20 minutes when I smell smoke. Open the oven and holy crap, the entire bottom of the oven is on fire. Apparently, I filled the pans too full and the cake batter ran over the sides of the pan and landed on the heating element at the bottom of the oven, causing major flames. Thank goodness we have a fire extinguisher is all I can say about that.
Clean oven, open all windows since our entire house smells like smoke and 30 minutes later, take TWO - start the entire birthday cake process over. Set timer for 50 minutes and periodically check it (I never open the door, I swear!!) and all looks good. Timer goes off, the daughter takes the cake out, and it's as flat as a pancake. Argh!!! Apparently this recipe is not conducive to 6000' altitude. Which, if I baked more often I would know this. Teach me for not eating cake everyday! Again, totally not my fault!
45 minutes 'til the boyfriend makes his birthday debut at our house and I have no cake. Rush to Whole Foods and I'm in sugar heaven... decisions, decisions:
Thankfully the boyfriend is late in his arrival so we had just enough time to get the cake out and remove all labels which indicated it was store bought, and the daughter and the boyfriend, the TWO of them, are happy campers. Well, at least for that day!
Awwww, aren't they so cute??? Even Mr.Balloon is happy.

- Finally, cuz I'm really tired and you're bored out of your skull, my last TWOSIE is that I just won TWO cookies from Rad Runner Girl's blog. She was having a cookie give-away and I'm all over anything sugar related and since I never win anything, I enter (makes perfect sense. Hush). Who knew I'd actually WIN. But I did. These cookies are from "Alternative Baking Company", which is totally vegan, and I have to admit, even though I'm trying not to eat sugar until after SF, I devoured the entire lemon poppy seed cookie ... and it was heaven! Hey, it was pure cane sugar - not processed, refined, white sugar. That makes it legal to eat before SF. Really! I checked the rule book. Besides, how could I let her know if they were good or not without my tasting? I mean, that's extremely poor manners, and I was brought up better than that. It was my duty to test them out. Thanks, Rad Runner Girl, those are really very tasty! YUM! And btw, she has a totally fun (and rad!) blog, you gotta check her out, clink on her purple link above.

So there ya go. Hope everyone enjoys their TWO day weekend!! Oh man, I'm just so clever sometimes I scare myself TWO death. Bahahaha. It's waaaay past my bedtime!

56 comments:

Croughwell said...

I'm glad the new shoes are working! Good luck in the rest of your training.

Velma said...

You make me laugh! I like the new shoes - always a good idea - and holy cow treadmill miles. Way to go. I love whole foods cakes and those vegan cookies. Yumo

Anonymous said...

woot for new shoes :) and doing a double :) keep your head up because you will beast SF :)

Running and living said...

so happy that the heel is better in the new shoes. i can't cook either, don't actually enjoy it so that's ok with me. and i can't believe you took the time to take a pic of the oven in the middle of the fire/cake making issue.

LMC said...

I'm impressed that the new shoes could make such a difference for you and am very glad they helped! You're patient to get 16 miles done on a treadmill. I'm always inspired by you cuz you just don't give up. Thanks for sharing with us!
BTW, I don't cook either, just don't like it. Nice pix of your kids!! Have a great weekend!

Ewa said...

Not to damper your enthusiasm but you should be testing your new shoes on the type of surface you will be running your marathon on. Your gait on a treadmill is different than on a non-moving surface. You have plenty of time before the marathon to try them out outside. Good luck.

Jenn said...

LOL Jill! You cooking queen! I'm feelin' your pain on the heel situation and hope the shoes are gonna help with it. I haven't been blogging because I haven't been running. I ended up with a femoral neck stress fracture. Still on crutches until the beginning of August doing NOTHING and then I may be able to do a little light cycling and swimming but won't be taking a running step for a LONG time. I'm feelin' a little SHITTY right now and I NEED to sweat. Any ideas for upper body cardio other than hand to mouth? Always reading your posts and still loving them! Good luck in San Fran!

Jennifer said...

I love, love, love the "flaming oven"! Sounds like the title of some rad 80's girl rock group... The heal thing sounds painful but it's good to hear you have some good days in there. Keep resting and being cautions! Cheers!

Johann said...

That heel sounds like hell. Hope the new shoes do the trick for you. You make me hungry. Must go get some cake right now.

Christi said...

Wow, I am so happy for you and all your "twos" but mostly that you can run pain free again. That is the best news I have heard all weekend!

Congrats!

MCM Mama said...

"Two" funny! Glad you are able to run pain free. Hope it continues for you.

misszippy said...

You are killing me here, lady! The cakes were hilarious--next time just start with Whole Foods. : )And SO glad shoes have done the trick for you...I really hope it continues!

HappyTrails said...

I am SO hoping the new shoes are the answer to your heel problems. BTW, where is photo of pair #2?????
I identify with the fire in the oven and the little "cake issue". Bless Whole Foods! Have a great rest of the weekend!
K

Tricia said...

happy to hear the shoes are helping!

(and we buy fruit every other day too)

Char said...

Good to hear that your heel is now under control. Sounds like you picked just the right shoes.

ajh said...

Great post ........so much to respond to. First, glad your heel had such a good run. My heel is bothering me just a little and I am ignoring it. Smart, huh? Love the cake baking story. Especially the removing of the labels. Excellent strategy. Funny (not to you) about the speeding ticket and the expensive meal. No fun really. I have my two story. After racing and then walking many miles I bought myself two desserts tonight at Starbucks!

ajh said...

I forgot to say......I am so excited I will meet you in Colorado! I don't want to hear anything though about it being a tough race. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts! With the altitude change and "not so easy" a race I will have to just enjoy it and not worry about my time!!!

Brian said...

I was totally cracking up that you took the time for a photo of the burning oven before putting out the fire.

Run Jess Run said...

...so what do you do with a spare pair of running shoes??

Anonymous said...

Hahaha- this was the best post ever! I love randomness!

Glad the heel is better...hope it stays that way. I am super jealous you have a summer hiatus. I work all summer (most of us who work in schools in NJ, do work all summer) and could use a break stat!!!

Oh, and I have friends who are twins...same thing, you would never ever know it!

Molly said...

This post was "too" funny. I don't think I'd be able to handle picking out just one cake at Whole Foods, I'd end up buying one for everyone at the party.

That's great you figured out what was going on with your heel!

Glenn Jones said...

I can read the smile in this entire post. Way to have the right attitude about life Jill! You know - when you have lemons, make some lemonade!

Anonymous said...

That's awesome that you've got no heel pain durign the run. What about after the fact?

Anne said...

Haha!! "Two" hilarious ;)

So glad you've found a solution that seems "two" be working!!

elaine said...

U. B. Krazzzzeeee. X2.

Sherri said...

YIppee for new shoes! I don't mind running on the treadmill, but I could NEVER do that many! WoW!!!

Kenley said...

Haha, I have not had a two day weekend in 10 years or so. lol. I do have 2 days off a week though, in-consecutive though, lol. A marathon in 5 weeks wow. Best wishes on that as you mentioned it is more of a training run than anything. About 10 weeks ago, I started having some major heel problems in my right foot. I changed shoes and wow, problem solved. I guess those gel kayanos only can withstand 250 miles with my frame. Haven't had a problem since. 21.5 miles in one day with two sessions. Awesome. Better luck next time with the cake thing. A few months ago, I nearly caught the kitchen ablaze, and I was just warming up pizza. lol. I wasn't even cooking anything. lol. Best wishes and success with your new shoes and training.

Mark said...

So glad to hear that the shoes are helping. Sounds real positive....btw I don't mind the treadmill either....can't cook, too!:)

C2Iowa said...

I would gladly give up my cooking skills for your speed and endurance!! Really, I can cook up a storm and would give it up for speed.... just saying.

Glad that the new kicks are working out for you and your heel.

Anonymous said...

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Now I have to rush down to Whole Foods - damn you!!!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tara said...

Oh for crying out loud, Rick was signed in under my computer account. Deleted that post.....

Hahahaa! I love the pic of your oven on fire! Girl, no more baking for you...

I'm surprised that you like the sparkly periwinkle on your shoes, couldn't find any pink ones huh? I like the shoes, glad they are helping out.

I had a great time with you on Friday, it was fun to get out, have a beer (or two), and nosh on not so good calories. We should do that more often.

All Things Jaime said...

I hope the new shoes continue to work for you! Looks like so far, so good! I had to laugh at your cake attempt! I love to cook ... not great at it, but I do enjoy cooking dinner every night! :)

The Boring Runner said...

I should leave TWO comments on this post, but I am going to have to merge them:

That is awesome about your heel - although annoying at the same time that it took so much experimenting.

Too funny about the cake w/ the BF. You're a good mom. I think I would have just tossed my hands in the air and said "welp, looks like he's going to eat sugar water"

Unknown said...

All those CAKES!! Yum!
I'm glad your heel is doing better, I saw somewhere in this blogging world that you're going to SF for sure! I'm glad you're body is behaving, it's going to be a pretty and fun race for sure.
LOVED the times 2 post, especially your daughter and her BF. Very cute and their "happy face" son is also a darling.
Hugs!

Marlene said...

YAYYYYYY! So happy for no heel pain!!!!

And also so happy that someone else shares my love of slightly green bananas! If they are all yellow, I can't eat them.

Rad Runner said...

Fab Fab FABULOUS! I am so glad you loved the cookies, and yes, I will second the non-processed sugar allowance rule! I am running the first 1/2 of S.F. so I got that rule book...

I love that you were baking with your gal, I also love that you had a fire extinguisher! :)

Xo- Rad Runner

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the new shoes are helping.. Yay! LOL at that oven pic, but I'm impressed you were going to bake a birthday cake period! I haven't done that in years :). Your boys are really cute Jill! Take care.. RC

Anne said...

You are two much, Jill! Loved this post and am glad you had that epiphany about the shoes. Our feet change and our shoes should too. Your fire made me just go and check our fire extinguisher to make sure it still worked.

Julie said...

Oh Jill,
What and the hell am I going to do with you? Thanks for cheering me up! I just had the worst training run to date..was feeling all sorry for myself:( Then I get to read your funny post and a smile appears on my face:) Thank you!

Nice job on your double mill run! You are awesome!! I don't think that I could of done that...way to be a rock star:) Congrats on the cookie win! I love Rad Runners blog:)

Take care Jill!

DRog said...

Great news on the heeel! The treadmill (and swimming) saved me over the two weeks before my marathon...I was able to get some good test runs in just as you did on a forgiving surface. My twins just like yours total opposites - lol. Thanks for your note I appreciate it! and good luck with this heel I hope it continues to improve...
-Derek

Melissa said...

I don't know how you do long distances on the treadmill! I get bored after a mile! Any tips or tricks?

AM! said...

42 comments! holy moly! and hey that's 4 (which is 2, 2's) +2. that's totally two-bu-lar!

okay, for the foot, I know for me I am REALLY glad I got an xray to just know for sure what was up. Taping my foot has made all the difference as well.
I know it's $ for the doc, but it's worth the investment. especially since running means so much to you...okay i'll stop now;-)

Laura said...

Good luck with the new shoes! I totally switched out from stability to squishy as well and have (touch wood) been the better for it. Your 'cooking' skills crack me up....

Katie A. said...

Okay, I'm officially the worse friend ever - so sorry.
I have had quite a week, you know parts of it :) I think we have the same shoes!!! I'm glad they are working!!!
Okay, I'm just going to call ya!
LOVE YOu!

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

That's such an easy mistake to make - overfilling the pan. What's so surprising is that you had time to stop and take a picture of the fire in your oven! Anything for the blog! ; )

I hope your heel pain is gone for good.

Mark said...

It's amazing the difference your shoes can make, isn't it? Glad you found a solution (because I know time off wouldn't be considered...right? :) There's not much worse than bad foot pain when you're running. I understand gutting it out at Boston, but running ANOTHER marathon on a bum foot would be double-stupid.

Lindsay said...

i thought maybe there'd be a giveaway for the number of times you said TWO in this post. what a let down ;)

glad you had such good runs! wow 21mi in one day. the second 5 is pretty impressive to me (sad, how low my mileage is) let alone the 16!!

hopefully the new shoes were all the pampering your heel needed!

Irene said...

I'm back on cold meds, so I'll need to go back and read through this post again. I have medication induced ADD.

Do you have plantar fasciitis? What you describe is exactly what my husband feels, and he has PF. I'm no expert but I thought I would throw that one out there. He had a couple of frozen bottles of water in the freezer, so when he's sitting watching TV he'll roll his heel under the frozen bottle of water. He was using tennis balls to roll his heel over, but the dog stole those.

Are those the Asics Gel 3020 (or something like that?) Those are purty.

The cake story is hilarious! I'd blame the oven, not the bakers... I'm just sayin'. Nice comeback, though. Thank goodness grocery stores have pretty good bakeries.

I hope you have a great week, two. ;)

The Green Girl said...

I really hope these shoes will do the trick and this pain will be a thing of the past.

I have to admit that I was thinking along the lines of Irene and wondering if you had plantar fasciitis, too.

Katie said...

OMG, I'd freak out if there was a fire in my oven! We also have a fire extinguisher under our kitchen sink, but still, I never want to see flames in the oven.

It's great that you figured out your heel issue. I think running on the treadmill has greatly reduced my injuries. I run outside two days a week, but the rest of my runs are on the treadmill. I've been injury free for 7 months! And I've been averaging 47 miles a week over that period of time! When I was just running on the roads I couldn't seem to do more than 30 miles a week consistently without getting injured.

Anonymous said...

Great news with the shoes and I was amused with all the two's!! (rhyme time over)

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who likes my bananas slightly green...when they start to get "the spots" I'm out, and don't even let me touch it when it's soft or I gag. (oops..."that's what she said" comes to mind after re-reading that - sorry!). :)

Gary Smith said...

Yay!!!!! X 21.5!!!!!

Teamarcia said...

See? gobs of comments for you with no giveaway at all! Oh I hope the new shoes do the trick for you...keeping all digits crossed!
I'm thinking i'll be looking just like that deflated cake when I attempt to run at altitude in a couple of months or less. Have you called rent Rite for the oxy tank yet?

Psyche said...

Hey, Jill! Glad the shoes are helping- sucks it took so long to get relief. Heel pain SUCKS!!! (Plantar fascitis perhaps? If so, make sure to stretch your soleus as this is what I have found to give the FASTEST relief for PF)

Your sons are very handsome! You good mom, you:)

AZ said...

As painful as a two childbirths?!? That is bad! Or so I'd be led to believe anyway.