Week in Review: Training Week 9

The "meh" edition.

This week. Oh, this week. I hit my miles, and even had some really nice runs in there. But I'm nursing a bruised ego and a sore ankle/arch/something and that puts a not-so-rosy patina on the memory of this week.

First things first, the recap, and since I seemed to have skipped all but one of my non-running workouts this week, let me just touch on the things I DID accomplish.

• Monday: Run--5 miles, 57 mins, 11:12ish pace: My notes say that I'm not going to complain about what the run wasn't, and instead relish what the run was. Which, of course, tells me that I was probably miserable the entire time. I do know the weather was fantastic, so there's that.
• Wednesday: Run--5.3 miles, 58 mins, 10:55 pace: A lovely, early AM run before work with some of my old running buddies. Hadn't run with them since November of last year, when they decided to jump to marathon training. It was a chilly morning, but a fantastic run nonetheless. Felt great most of the time and even found myself holding back a little because they wanted to go a little slower.
• Saturday: Run--7.45 miles, 1:20:26, 10:47ish pace. My first race longer than a 5k, which is a hay-uge milestone for me. The run itself was fine, course wasn't anything fancy, but the trail was smooth and fairly flat. It was a small race (under 100 people?) but everyone was friendly. My only bummer was that I had gotten myself used to the idea that I *might* come home with a medal. They award the top three in each age group (of which there are 13) for both the 5k and the 12k, and last year's race there were only two folks in my age group. So, you could see why maybe I might be a little hopeful. Originally, my only goal was to not finish last, and I did make that goal at least. I might have been 5th to last, but whatever. Anyway, long story shot, I did NOT medal. However, everyone else I knew there who raced got one, including my friend who ran/walked and my other friend who ONLY WALKED. And it was her first 5k. Oy. I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but dammit. Oh well. I ran a 12k! In the freezing cold and snow! At least I got a bottle of Gatorade. And I also took Belly out for Dunkin' Donuts after the race. Donuts are the breakfast of champions, after all.

And my ankle. GD ankle. This is the same foot that was having toe issues earlier. Well, I'm happy to report that my toe problems have gone away. Not sure if it was the lock-lacing on the shoe or the anti-chafe stuff or what, but my toe didn't hurt at all on Saturday. My ankle is a different story, however. It had been bothering me when the toe was acting up, and it's still an issue.

Basically, about 2-3 miles into my run--any run--the interior side of my ankle and down into my arch starts hurting/aching and continues to do so even after I'm finished. Yesterday it throbbed most of the day after the race and even into the night. My self diagnosis is that I'm probably over-pronating on that foot. My feet are angled outward under normal circumstances (duck-footed?), and I think that when I run and get fatigued, they probably tend to do so even more, which leads to running on the inside of my foot/ankle, stretching the tendons ligaments in a bad way, etc. Not good. And I'm not sure if the toe situation was caused by the pronation or vice versa. It's so hard to tell. And maybe the locking-lace trick is putting too much strain on my ankle and not allowing it to flex properly? I don't know--that foot is completely f-ed up and pissing me off.

And I'm back to square one. Is it the shoes? Is it me? Is it the mileage? I'm sort of desperate at this point, trying to find a fix that will at least let me get through the next three weeks of training and the half marathon itself. I've come too far to get sidelined at this point!

So, I broke the cardinal rule of running: I went to Famous Footwear and bought new shoes. Yes, I skipped my Local Running Store (LRS) and headed straight for the place where I had a coupon. Found a pair of Sauconys with some stability/motion control that felt like they hugged my feet nicely. Bought them in an 11, which is what my previous Sauconys were. (My Brooks are 10.5s.) My very first pair of running shoes were FF Sauconys, the cheapest ones I could find there. I loved them and they loved my feet. The only reason I got different ones were because they didn't sell that style any more. So, I went back and found a decent pair at a price I could justify.

In the meantime, I'm trying to ice my arch/ankle a couple times a day, incorporate more stretching of my calves and such and I'll try to keep my gait steady on any training runs this week. These shoes could the biggest mistake of my life, or they could save my hide. Who knows?But honestly, I'm willing to try anything at this point. I just need three more weeks, that's all! Please ankle/foot/whatever. Be kind to me!