Same Old Same Old

Well, that didn't take long. I had no more than written my first post in a while and mentioned how I was tired of documenting struggle after struggle and here I am again, on the DL. As I wrote last week, I've been battling some form of heel pain since running a hilly 14-miler on December 13th. I woke up the next morning with my heel sore and haven't been able to shake it ever since. I'm not sure if it's plantar fasciitis, a heel spur, a bruise to the fat pad, or a stress fracture. My suspicion is the first of those, but I don't have an official diagnosis, and while I have many of the classic symptoms of plantar fasciitis, I don't have all of them.

At any rate, last week I felt bad enough on Tue and Wed that I took both days off. I then decided to resume running on Thu and actually felt ok that day, which consisted of just an easy 3 miles. I did 5.5 on Fri, a 6/3 double on Sat, then embarked on a moderate run on Sun with a plan of doing 7 total, pushing the pace from the 6:50's down into the 6:20's or :30's. When I started that run I felt like I have most every run the past month, in pain but nothing bad. The pain lessened as I went, as has been typical of this injury, but usually by a mile or so in I'm pretty much pain free. That wasn't the case on Sun. Still, things were manageable so I stuck to my plan. Basically I'd decided that I was going to resume doing what I needed to do in training and that I'd either be able to run through it or find out I couldn't, and it definitely turned out to be the latter.

After running miles 4 and 5 around 6:40 pace, one just under and one just over, I felt a stabbing pain in my heel like someone was driving a nail into it. I felt this one other time a few weeks ago and it only lasted a few steps before going back to how it was, but that wasn't the case this time. Each step got worse, and within half a dozen strides I was forced to stop. After giving it a bit, I tried to resume running, but it was a no go. In fact, even walking hurt pretty bad. To make matters worse, I was roughly a mile and a half from home and had no way back other than by foot, so I limped my way the remainder of the route, feeling like my foot was gonna snap in half by the time I got there.

I spent the rest of the day on the couch watching football while icing, soaking in Epsom salts, and icing again, along with popping various anti-inflammatories. Walking was pretty much a no go, so I used crutches for my few ventures off the couch. Thankfully, the next day it was much improved and I was able to get around sans crutches, albeit with a significant limp. As I write this today, I'm that much more improved and almost able to walk normally, so at least I don't seem to have done too much damage.

So now what? Honestly, I have no idea. I'm debating. I really want to compete again and even do so at a high level, but the past several years have been nothing short of ridiculous for me. At some point I have to do what Kobe Bryant did this year and realize that while the spirit is willing the body is no longer able. In the meantime, I'm going to self treat this injury as hard as I can in an attempt to get pain free as quickly as possible, but I'm not going to try to run through any more pain. I'll wait until it's 100% before trying again, which could mean another return to zero fitness depending on how long it takes. When I think about it like that, I'm not sure how many more start-from-scratch efforts I have in me.

Anyway, that's the deal. I'll update the blog when I get back on my feet. I hope that's quickly, but I'm not overly optimistic based on how long I've been battling this and the fact that I probably prolonged whatever the original healing time may have been by spending a month running on it. Oh well, it is what it is and at least I'm used to it.