Back To Running
The month of indulgence is officially over. This past month I took off from running to do two things; take a break from the past 11 months of training and two, allow my plantar fasciitis to heal. The foot pain has come a long way but is not completely healed. I think it turned into a form of tendonitis along the way as I was compensating for the plantar fasciitis. Ice has helped immensely. I put ice packs on the bottom of the foot three or four times per day and it was amazing how much it helped. I used ice for my shoulder after pitching oh so long ago but never applied it to the tendons in the foot or associated with it with running. It makes sense though.
I've put on an additional seven pounds the last few weeks. It could have been worse, much worse. I still ate good meals and no junk food--well occasional junk food cravings were allowed. After all, it's indulgence month, but I ate a few salads and went low-cal on several meals. I think I would have been even if it hadn't been such a drastic drop in cardio workouts.
I packed my running clothes for an afternoon run. The weather should be great. Something around 60 degrees and sunny with low humidity.
Labels: ice, indulgence, junk food, plantar fasciitis
Sidelined From The Run
I'm on the sidelines for a period of time until my plantar fasciitis in the left foot gets better. I ran 10 miles on Sunday and then iced the foot, massaged it, stretched it and could hardly walk the rest of the afternoon. Rather than do permanent damage, it's time to lay off.
Labels: plantar fasciitis
All My Bikes Are Trashed
I finally finished stripping the paint from the frame I bought for $30. After all the Dremel Tool buffers and brushes I used, I could've had the thing sandblasted cheaper and I woul've kept a lot of crap out of my lungs. Not only that, as pieces of wire brush came off the bit, they eventually wound up in the bottom of my foot as I walked across the garage for my beer.
The bikes are all taken apart as I'm rebuilding the fixed gear up from the frame up, taking parts from each of the bikes and then will reassemble them with what works best for each.
The half ironman triathlon is looking real iffy at this point. The hip is taking longer to get well, as is the plantar fasciitis. The knee has healed up but my workouts have been less than required preparing for a half ironman with mom in the hospital. I've also strayed away from my diet and so the planned ten pounds of weight loss came off and has since reappeared in the last week eating in the cafeteria.
With that said, the best thing may be to plan for a season of half marathons and let this triathlon and bike time trial season go.
Labels: Dremel, Half Ironman, half marathon, plantar fasciitis
Just Found
I just found this gold nugget of information.
"Since muscles which go through growth in size but not in length, when one muscle grows through hypertrophy its opposite side muscle (the antagonist) will have to lengthen, and absolute flexibility is the term to describe a muscle's length, in and of itself, where relative flexibility is the flexibility of a joint, as compared to its antagonistic movement[1]."
"For example, the calf muscle extends the foot towards the ground (plantarflexion) and the shin muscle flexes the foot in the opposite direction (dorsiflexion). If a person's calf is overly strong it will not be as flexible as the opposite shin muscle, and plantarflexion will be exhibit relatively inflexible as compared to dorsiflexion using the person's weaker, but more flexible shin muscle."
So as I've been strengthening the calf muscles, I've been increasing the likelihood of plantar fasciitis. I either have to increase the strength of the shin, or reduce the strength work of the calves.
Labels: calf, plantar fasciitis, strength
