Oh the Agony! Shannon

Ok, it's been almost a month since my last posting - so sorry.  However, this posting will be short and maybe not so sweet.  I still plan on catching you all up with my awesome quilting retreat and other going ons for the last month, but the one thing that's on my mind right now is pain.

Yes, I said pain.  Just before I left on my quilting retreat I started feeling pain in my heel.  I played it off as nothing!  Ya, we runners do that well.  A little pain is normal with running, right?  Ignore it and it will go away, right? Well it did!  Ha, I knew it.  While I was gone for a week (with no running).  Only to have it come back after my first run.

Ok, so maybe it's something.  After talking with my fellow Trail Turtle, Pam (who is also a nurse), who offered to test my foot pain (of course, I declined cuz I knew what she was gonna do - push on my heel - ouch) she confirmed my worst fears - I can't even say it!  I just might be suffering from PF - yikes - no - say it's not so.  Ok for all you non-runner people - I know you're dieing to know what PF stands for - Plantar Fasciitis ("PLAN-ter fash-ee-EYE-tus") - ugh - a runner's worst nightmare (well one of them anyways).

In brief, the plantar fascia is the flat band of tissue (ligament) that connects your heel bone to your toes. It supports the arch of your foot. If you strain your plantar fascia, it gets weak, swollen, and irritated (inflamed). Then your heel or the bottom of your foot hurts when you stand or walk or RUN.

Ok, so I come back and start running and I just run through the pain.  In fact, once I get going, the pain goes away - but then it comes back after I'm done with my run.  At this point in time the pain really isn't that unbearable, well except when I get out of bed, or stand up after sitting for awhile, or...........  No really, it's not that bad.

So I start researching every thing I can about PF.  Best remedies to heal your heel is ice, tape (sports tape), stretching, and oh yeah REST.  What?  Don't they know I'm gearing up to start my training for WTC 2011.  There is NO time for rest - silly doctors - what do they know?  So, ok I start doing the whole ice, tape, and stretching thing.  So everything should be just fine since I'm doing 3 out 4 recommendations, right?

Last night I head out for a run with my friend, Linda, on the flatter trails in Folsom.  A nice and easy 4 miler.  Foot is feeling fine (after I get going).  After 2 miles we turn around, still feeling good.  We're having great conversation (we haven't seen each other in over a month), it's starting to get dark, so we turn on our headlights, and we continue our nice and easy stride.

All is going good until my "bad" foot slips ever so slightly on an embedded river rock.  Now under normal circumstances this is no big deal.  We trail runners deal with these kinds of obstacles on every run.  Many a times, I have slipped on rocks with not even noticing it.  Well last night that little slip caused my heel to scream some very unlady-like words (I'm going to have to have a talk with my heel - potty mouth).  I was actually able to continue my run for us to get back to our cars after stretching my calf a bit.  I was actually feeling ok until I tried to get out of my truck - OUCH!!!!

Today, still a lot of pain.  Although, wearing tennies with inserts does seem to eliviate some of the pain and I'm actually able to walk.  Ok with a slight limp.  However, I did make the really really really hard decision to not go to my track workout this morning, to cancel a trail run I had scheduled for tomorrow morning, and most likely won't be doing boot camp tomorrow morning either (unless Diane can modify for me).

Along with these immediate cancellations, I'm also going to make the extremely extremely extremely tougher decision to lay off from running all together for at least a month - OMG - did I really just make that public - oh the agony!  Instead, I will be on my bike.  I won't give up my training, I will only alter it!  Hopefully by behaving myself and not doing any weight bearing activities I'll be able to heal my heel in time for my official starting of my WTC training.

I guess I didn't make this too short, did I.  Oh well, by now you all know I'm pretty talkative.

I promise to give you another post about quilt camp, etc.  And stay tuned to hear about my biking advertures :).