RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS ALWAYS GET ME DOWN.

Actually, not necessarily. But it is rainy and it is Monday, and this was a song I happened to hear this morning, so a good lead in.

Made it to spinning this morning. We had a substitute, the jumping queen. I swear, more than half her class is always jumps. But I pushed through it and kept my heart rate in the 80% zone.

On the foot front, I should know better. After almost 19 years of being involved with running in one form or another, why didn't I think of this before?? I'm talking about my PF problem. I'm talking about the fact that I can't remember when I last bought a new pair of shoes. The shoes I wore last summer were broken in nicely and were already partly trashed, so perfect for sprint tris--my feet get very wet when I run, and my shoes break down quickly because of this, but it doesn't really bother me in the warm weather. Its just when we get into the frozen tundra weather that my feet rebel, and that's probably why the last 2 winters I have had plantar problems. That and a bad orthotic, most likely. People don't realize running on frozen concrete can affect your body. Who would have thought??

Anyway, after my run Saturday, my heel wasn't too bad so I figured I could manage a short workout with weights on Sunday. And yes, that went fairly well also. My heel actually calmed down quite a bit by late afternoon, almost totally in fact, but then I noticed something else: the bones in my feet generally ached, and my pelvis was achey as well. Then a lightbulb went off in my head. Could it be my shoes were worn out? Could it be all the cushioning was pretty well shot?

When I used to run mega miles, I replaced my shoes at the first signs of pelvic distress, usually about every 3 months. Sometimes less. It was the only luxury I afforded myself, since my running was so important to me. But over the last few years, my running has been so poor, I don't follow this rule so closely. And that's usually how worn out shoes affect me.

So I looked at the heels of the shoes and didn't see much wear, although I know these shoes are quite old, but the arches showed breakdown. You can tell this by looking at the rubber or whatever material is on your shoes, and looking for stress cracks. Yes, there were lots of them. I had to think back to way before my accident and then realized something: I was going to wear the old, comfy shoes until the end of the tri season (since they had the stretchy laces already in place) and then get a new pair of shoes. Of course, that opportunity never happened because once I had the accident, I forgot all about needing new shoes. I didn't even wear any running shoes for two months, so the thought totally escaped me. When I did start out running again, I wasn't running that much, but I couldn't put on my stretchy lace shoes because they were actually too tight for my toes that were broken, so I pulled out an old pair of shoes, and now I'm not really sure how old these things are.

So I will be getting a new pair of shoes and see if I can further improve the heel/achey foot/pelvis problem and actually get some running in.