The Crazy Floridain's 100/My Heel (imagine!)/Go Andrew!

I know, 3 posts from me this week - what's the world coming to.  I hope I don't get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!  But this will be short.  No laughing at that last sentence.

I am so excited and had to share: My friend, Adam (Crazy Floridian), is about to embark on his first 100-miler.  Adam and I met a little over a year ago and he is one of the most genuine, sincere, and compassionate people I've ever met.  Please wish him well, he has no pacer and his crew members include his wife and young son only so I know he'd love to have some well wishes and support from the blog world!  If you have time, please click on the "Crazy Floridian" and let give him a virtual good luck!  Here is his race link:

 Iron Horse Endurance 100-miler

Other quick heel news:
Working in a high school certainly has it's advantages, such as the fact I get a lot of days off work, such as next Monday and Tuesday, for instance.  Yes, it's great...but I make a fraction of what the rest of the population makes so don't go thinking you're gonna all want to get your teaching degree.  But another cool thing working here is that I work with a cross country coach who is a big ultra runner AND we have an athletic trainer.  Both have been tremendous aids in many aches and pains over the past 4 years I have been here, especially with the heel. 

Well, the heel's still being testy and I sought out the advice of an ex-athletic trainer here at school, who is also a physical therapist and truly one of the smartest people I have ever spoken to in the field.  She recently went to a seminar on "Plantar Faciitis and Plantar Faciosis" given by a professor and head of the physical therapy department here at Regis University.  This man apparently is an "expert" in the field of PF and I couldn't wait to get to the phone fast enough to call him.  So I did.

And he called me back.

And he couldn't be any nicer.

I am not a student at Regis University and technically he is not suppose to be treating me, and technically he isn't going to, but he spent about 45 minutes with me on the phone getting my 35+ year history of running, the history of my heel problems, and told me, amongst other insightful tidbits, "Stopping running and progressing back into it is not necessarily the ticket to beating this thing...."  One thing that has really bothered me with this entire heel fiasco is vast array of opinions, both online and from every soul you encounter - and even doctors, on what is "best" for my heel.  Seems there's about a 70-80% consensus to stop running, and that will make it all go away.  My podiatrist and this apparent expert in the field both disagreed 100% with that.  So that was a relief, in some sort of twisted way.

Anyway, I am rambling, as I tend to do (and noted I wouldn't above - ha, who's laughing now!) but here's the cool thing....he is going to see me next week to do an analysis of my running (I will show you all my show wear pattern next week...you will be SHOCKED to see how much I heel strike my right (aka: bad heel) foot.  This guy told me point-blank that what I have may NEVER be a distant memory, that it is most likely here to stay (no guarantees one way or another) but he could help me manage it better and hopefully make my running more enjoyable.

I am SO excited, I can't even express in words how good I felt when I got off the phone a couple days ago with him.  I go in next week, I am going to take tons of notes, and I'll be certain to share!!!!  I don't even care if this heel pain is never going to go away - at least I'm going to have some skills to help manage it and that gives me hope that yes, I can still run that 50 this fall, amongst other things.

Having a 4-day weekend, I'm off for a little adventure in the mountains - yay!  Having a few too many anxiety attacks this past week and so I think some fresh mountain air is going to really help.  Also revamping the blog a little and WILL have my coaching website done so lots of things to share with you next week, stay tuned!

Go get 'em Adam.  And also to Andrew, who will be running his first 8-miler race!  So excited for him, too.  You're going to do great buddy!

Happy weekend, friends.  Run strong!