Injury Report: Heels

Welcome to April!

It was finally nice enough to try an outside run with Billie. We found a trail located only a few miles from work located at a museum and golf course. It was a little weather beaten from the snowy winter we'd had but for the most part the gravel seemed intact and was a nicer/softer running surface than a sidewalk. My knees were still holding up pretty decently, though I was still icing them to be safe.

After our first trail run I decided it was time I did the majority of my running outside and not on the treadmill. Once I hit the road I started noticing a new pain starting: heel pain. Not the bottom, mind you, as one might think since that's what strikes the ground first. Not the bottom and not the arch, as most heel pain was described on google. Again, doctors, who needs em? So I did the best I could to treat it blindly. I got braces again, this time ankle braces from the dollar store. Granted I didn't think these $1 braces would be doing much for support, I mostly used them to hold my ice packs in place. I took aspirin every 6 hours or so and hoped for the best. I posted this to facebook on April 9th.

I've been running since February 22nd. Recently 3 miles at least, 3 times a week. I've noticed I can run further, I've noticed my time shortening.... But I think since I started I've had maybe two pleasant runs without pain. First it was shin pain. Annoying but tolerable. Then it was knee pain. Debilitating post run but as long as I iced after I could deal, and taking a week off seemed to cure that. Well now, since I've been running outside, I have terrible heel pain just under the ankle bone. I am getting both discouraged and angry. Sore muscles I understand but joint pain? Nerves pinching? So pissed. So so pissed. Tried to alter how I land on my feet last night, figured maybe I was landing too much on my heel... Well now instead of just the left heel hurting the right one does too. Guess I'm taking a week off again. Bull cookies. Bull freakin cookies.

Friends commented that it must be the shoes. I haven't made a blog post about my gear yet, but I responded that I highly doubted shoes were the problem as I wear Brooks Transcend. (By the way, at some point since April they've gotten a new shoe color... drool.... wants it....) Matt posted this:

You might want to get the arches in your feet checked as well. I found that only certain manufactures make suitable running shoes for my low arches

But pfft stubborn me, why see a professional when I could just go on self diagnosing? In hindsight I probably should have done that, but taking time off cured me of the heel pain. What convinced me to take off a week this time?

Oh yeah. I'll be capturing all the Victorian gentlemen with this ankle. 

 

Yup. No idea what happened here. I guess the ankle was just like nope. Had enough. No more. Gross. And no, I should point out, the nail is not black and blue. That's just nail polish that I haven't bothered taking off since October. So I took a week off and thankfully, knock on wood again, that pain has not returned.