I Love Lamp

Rather than running this evening, I am watching Anchorman, due to my calf. Or at least what I thought was my calf. The drama that began last October pre-NYC Marathon hasn't quite ended. Four months ago I thought I would be two months into marathon training by now. But my planned May Fargo race has become an October local race. And by local, I mean my Schenectady, NY, the town I grew up in. Well, technically it's a city, not a town... And I grew up in Rotterdam, but it's close enough. The race starts in the park I used to go sledding in as a kid.

Back to my calf... What started out as a strained soleus muscle (lower calf) turned out to also be an issue with my posterior tibial tendon. This particular tendon connects at the bottom of my foot, wraps around my ankle, and heads north to my upper calf. So was it both? Was it the tendon the whole time? Did one injury cause the other? Reflecting back on the issues I had last fall, I'm guessing it was both. But while the muscle healed in probably a matter of a couple weeks, this lingering tendon issue has kept me sidelined.

So what caused all this? Probably a perfect storm of miscalculated decisions on my part. Let's rehash them, shall we?

I got fast. I got lazy.
I experienced quite a speed boost in 2010. It wasn't so much that my fastest time was much faster than it ever was. It was more that I was running faster times more often and more consistently. And if you look at snapshots of me in mid air, I am over-striding like a clown. I got careless with my stride form, perhaps due to a certain pair of Mizuno Inspires shoes with what felt like huge heels. But really, I've just got me to blame. I had a few bouts with shin splints last year and my calves were regularly tight. I should have made a more conscious effort to retain a more balanced stride, rather than getting lazy about it while focusing on speed.

Great example of my peg-leg landing

Ghost 3? Ghost me.
I love the Brooks Ghost 3 shoe. It really feels great to run in. But it is a neutral shoe and I pronate slightly. Actually, I pronate quite a bit on my right side. But I ran in them anyways. About 600 miles of running in neutral shoes. That caught up with me in October. This, I believe, was the direct cause of the tendon issue. I had run in neutral shoes in the past. And I had never had such an issue, even though I pronate. What changed last year was the volume and speed at which I ran. Cut 30 miles off of that total and I would not have reached the point that it became an issue. It's cumulative. Add the fact that my ugly stride had me impacting the ground with greater force and well, crap. So now I'm running in Brooks Revenna 2 (or Adrenaline GTS 11). And I'm wearing insoles in my walking shoes/sneakers until I heal up.

Sore calves and my passive attitude.
My calves were fairly tight throughout the late summer and fall. I took extra time stretching them, occasionally rolled them, and regularly talked about getting them worked on by a sports massage therapist. But I never saw said therapist, I just talked about it. So two things here- The fact that my calves were so tight should have absolutely been a clue that something wasn't quite right. I did buy new shoes rather early (with about 250 miles logged on them rather than 300+), because I detected an issue. But when that didn't solve it, what did I do? Not enough. I should have gotten that massage. I should have thought, "Hmm, getting new shoes hasn't helped as much as I thought it would. Perhaps something else is happening here that I need to pay more attention to."

Pre-blizzard run with the gang

My Doc has given me a green light to start running, advised me to go slower than usual, and put me on an anti-inflammatory regimen of Advil and ice. We are a month into Summer Season 2011 with Team in Training, and I am a training captain once again and loving it. I spent this evening working on my running calendar and training schedule- something I haven't done since last year- and it felt great. I'm not a fan of routine, but I seriously can't wait to get back into one with my running addiction.