The Treadmills Have it in for Me!

I swear to god! It’s a plot!

Some may remember a few weeks ago when I reported about the treadmill that shut down on me after giving me a light electric shock. Well, today I had a similar experience, sans shock. This time I had no warning, it just shut down quickly and flashed “motor disabled” across my readout. Of course, the “motor disabled” indication came after the machine had already pitched me forward. I mean, I’m the one who usually stands up for the treadmill. I’ve sung its praises on posts and comments here on The Loop. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever…. oh, wait, yes I have referred to it as the “dreadmill.” Maybe just once. Shoot.

It’s a good thing warmer weather is just around the corner.

Today I put in a 5 mile run on the lovely treadmill, wonderful machine that it is. It was a so-so run for me. My achilles started acting up a few times during the run. Call me stupid, but I ran through it at a slower pace when it tightened up. Twice the discomfort/tightness (I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “pain”) went away after a few minutes. The third time I just couldn’t loosen up the tendon so I stopped and walked over to the stretching area to, well, stretch. It felt better after the stretching and it didn’t bother me the rest of the evening during my core and upper body workout.

I’m still not feeling very confident about my return to running since the achilles has bothered me almost every run, but I’ll keep plodding on and see how things go. Let’s hope for the best. My choices at this point are stop running again and forget about my Spring races (including my first marathon), or train despite the achilles discomfort and keep my fingers crossed that the tightness slowly improves. The achilles problems I had last summer DID get better with time, stretching and a cutback on speedwork and hillwork, so hopefully the same will be true this time.

I tried a new cross-training activity today – I swam!!! I didn’t swim for long, but it sure felt good. I could feel the heart a’pumping! Now to get some goggles… and a bottle of Visine.

I Couldn't Move my Fingers!

High praise to the incredible edible egg! It often helps me refuel after a run with lots of protein in a small, nutrient-dense package. Muy yum! I always keep hard-boiled eggs in my fridge. And soon they shall be pastel-colored now that Easter is approaching! :-)

On a sadder note, I lost my favorite REI fleece gloves. They were perfect for temps in the 30s as they also doubled as a nice, soft nose-wiper. haha! Maybe my gloves are not gone though. Maybe they are only temporarily misplaced and will show up unexpectedly sometime soon. Here's hoping... *sigh*

I did a 9 mile run today which went wonderfully until the very last quarter mile when my achilles started acting up again. I was forced to walk about 3/4 of a mile back to my car with temps in the low 20s and moderate winds. I was so cold when I got back I couldn't use my fingers very well. It was hard to start my car to get the heater and heated seat going! Usually the heated seat gets so hot on the "high" setting that I have to turn in down after a few minutes. Today I kept it on high and couldn't feel it at all after a few minutes. Bizarre and a little disturbing. Anyway, I just couldn't get warm. I was going to drive to the gym, but drove home instead so I could warm up with a blanket draped over me and a heat vent. That's the fastest way to warm up in my condo - even better than a hot shower. It did the trick but then I was bone tired. I napped for several hours this afternoon. It made me start wondering how much energy it takes the body to warm up after being exposed to so much cold. I also wonder what my body temperature was. I don't know what the technical definition of "hypothermic" is, but I was headed that way... Needless to say, I didn't stop and stretch before getting in my car! Now that I'm finally back to normal body temp-wise and energy level-wise, I'm about to start my core and upper body training here at home. No gym today!

Meow.

Doc Report

The free clinic by the podiatrist was today. I was there early as promised. The first thing the doc did when he took a look at my foot was make fun of my flat feet. Then he teased me because of my extremely inflexible, well, everything. I don't bend very well. "Relax your feet," he says. "They are relaxed!!!" "No, really, relax them." "That's as relaxed as they're gonna get!" Then he took one look at my achilles and said that if I didn't already have achilles problems, I would have them eventually. Sheeesh! Apparently my achilles are very thin as achilles go. My one saving grace in that regard is my tiny-ness. :-)

He did a lot of palpating of my foot, paying special attention to the heel and achilles area. None of his manipulation caused any pain - good news. He said the problem I described was achilles related but that I wasn't in danger of rupture any time soon - better news. I got the A-OK to continue my training! YAY!!!!!

And to top it all off, he gave me his card, told me he has an ongoing study using some sort of ultrasound machine as a treatment aid, and if I continue to have achilles problems, he would include me in the study and my exams and treatments would be free of charge. WOW!

All in all, it was a great way to end an otherwise so-so day. My day at work was horrendously boring - we had two appointments from 8 - 1 pm. TWO! And one was a suture removal which took all of 3 minutes - snip, snip, his incision is healing perfectly and have a nice day. We didn't even get any money off of it because suture removals are courtesy (as long as we did the surgery). The other appointment was a cranky brat kitty with a mysteriously high white blood cell count. It still only took about 30 minutes and most of that was the doctor talking to the client. Zzzzz...

Then I went to the gym for my second run since my hiatus. It didn't go as well as Sunday and I started to get depressed again. Though there wasn't any outright pain in my heel, I could feel some tightness and these random pin-prick sensations which worried me. I did a 10 minute brisk walk warm-up and stretched before running even! The run itself was very slow and I slowed down to walk periodically as Pat suggested. The whole run felt "off", and not just because of my heel. I felt clumsy and awkward, like I'd lost all my form. When I reached about 4-5 miles, my legs really started aching. Three weeks ago I did 16 miles with no discomfort and now I can barely do 6. After my run, I carefully stretched again, did my core and upper body workout and then went to see the doc. That's when things finally started going my way. :-)

So now I'm sitting at home, waiting for Matty to return. Hopefully he'll bring dessert. He was supposed to bring it yesterday and FORGOT!! Are you reading this, Mr. Antoniou!? I want tiramisu!!

Meow

Stretching and Injuries

Someone recently posted in the Runner's World online community for advice on stretching, and I, of course, had to throw in my two-cents worth. Considering I've only been running one year, two cents may be all it's worth! But it has been working for me so far! Of course, I've never been prone to injury luckily. I've played volleyball since I was 12 and had only two slight injuries (I'm 35 now). I never injured myself in my years of playing basketball. I have learned that running injuries are far different. They are less likely to be trauma and more likely to be from overuse. I did tweek both my achilles last year but they are both back to about 90%. Stretching, taking it easy on hills and speedwork for a while and calf-raises really helped my achilles (since I don't have insurance or the money to see a physician or a PT!).

With that intro, here's what I posted on my thoughts on stretching:

The consensus I have gotten from various trusted sources is the best time to stretch is when your muscles are warm. That means, if stretching before a run, walk or slow jog for about 10ish minutes first, then stop and stretch, then start your training run. After a run, cool down with another 10ish minutes of slow jogging/walking and stretch again.

Armed with that advice, I still only stretch AFTER a run but it has reduced sore muscles CONSIDERABLY and helped a nagging achilles injury (mentioned above) to heal.

Before a shorter distance race (5 or 10K), I'll warm up by running slowly for about 10 minutes pre-race. For the 5K, I might even recruit some fast twitch muscles by throwing in some short bursts of faster running to warm up. (I say "might" because I haven't done a 5K yet (haha!), but that's my plan for when I do!) For longer races, I let the first few miles of the race itself be my warm-up.