I have really gotten used to these warmer Alaskan temperatures, and I have become a total wimp when it gets a little chilly out. Today I cringed at the thought of running (okay mostly walking but I still like to refer to my training as running) out in -2 degree weather. I absolutely hate running on the treadmill, so I thought I would wait a few hours to see if it was going to warm up.
And wow! Did it ever…heatwave! 9 degrees warmer. So I bundled up and headed out the door.
But once I was outdoors it didn’t really feel that cold. I advanced my run/walk to 1.5 minutes of running/3.5 of minutes of walking x 5 with a 10 minute warm-up and cool down. I am not suppose to be running or walking uphills, but that is hard to do given where I live. Any route that I take has rolling hills so I try to time the actual running on the flatter parts as much as possible.
The good news is that I am running without any pain at all. So I am really excited about that. My heel does stiffen up and can be slightly tender later in the day when I am less active, but it isn’t really painful. That only started a couple of days ago, however. I made the mistake of making too many changes on the same day. One, I went back to yoga and felt my tendon tighten during a chair pose when I tried to get lower into the pose; next I added weight to my heel drop exercises plus I increased the time of actual running. I probably should have planned that out a little better and not make all those changes at once. But, as long as my foot isn’t hurting when I wake up in the mornings and as long as it isn’t painful on the runs, I will continue to train. Along with the “training” runs, I am still doing the heel drops (now with a weighted backpack) twice a day, foam rolling every night, and sleeping in the boot. So far it seems to be working.
