Weekend workouts and heel pain.

This continues to be the same saga as last weekend, but I think I have at least found some relief. The first thing I did different was changed shoes from motion control to stability. Ran twice with those during the week with little to no discomfort immediately following the run, although the heel pain was still there, just not flared up apparently. Saturday my plan was to do a timed 10k (6.2 miles) workout on the treadmill, using the 5/1 method. Surprisingly after the first 5/1 interval, I was able to bump the speed up a couple of notches. During the first 5/1 interval, I realized my treadmill incline was at almost 5%, since it has to be manually cranked to set the incline. The kids messed with it. No wonder I was out of breath horribly after the first 5 min. So I cranked and cranked and cranked until I got back to .5%, which is supposed to simulate running outside (yeah, right--no snow, ice, or cold--not close!). Anyway, the rest of the run was within heart rate and breathing range and I was able during the last few minutes to actually crank up to almost a 10 min. mile--without feeling like I would fall off. Total time was about 1:12, which was 11 min. faster than last week, and definitely less painful.

So I have made some progress with speed and endurance, and after a fashion with the heel problem. Had a massage appointment that afternoon and am glad I planned it that way! She said my muscles were SOOO tight. She actually worked on me for an hour and 20 min. and tried a few different techniques. She tried to work on the heel, but it was too painful. She did suggest an icing alternative to what I was doing, which really wasn't working. The pain in my heel is not directly in the heel but along the outside, and it is very difficult to ice without turning your foot on the side, which doesn't last for long, obviously because it is a very uncomfortable position. So she suggested keeping a sock on, taking a soft ice pack and finding a larger sock, and putting the soft ice pack around my foot, using the other sock to hold it in place. Voila! It has worked wonders in just 24 hours. Now when I grab my heel there is hardly any pain and the swelling has gone down. I need to keep this up for the rest of the week if possible and see if my 10k next week goes okay.

Now maybe I can take back the eighty freakin' dollar shoes I bought to "walk" around in in Arizona.