Forced Indoors and Updates

The smokey haze throughout the Eagle River Valley is due to the wildfire (#sockeyefire) near Willow, Alaska. It appeared to be just over the mountains so I thought that it would be safe to run outside today, but once I got out I could smell the strong smoke in the air. I have mild asthma and even though I had taken my inhalers today, I didn’t want to take a chance of having some respiratory problems.

So, I decided to head to the gym and run on the treadmill. That is one activity that I do NOT enjoy. I will run in temperatures close to zero to avoid having to run on the treadmill. But, I am still building my base in preparation for the marathon training which starts in less than two weeks, and I don’t want to miss any runs unless I absolutely have to.

The run went okay, it was only three miles. But, what was frustrating was the fact that once again my foot strike on the treadmill was really hard. I paid close attention to this, and I don’t believe I was over striding. I have been working on increasing my cadence and landing more on my mid-foot, but regardless of how lightly I tried to run, it sounded like I was dropping bombs. I think I need to have my running form evaluated.

A couple of updates: I read “Born To Run” and I loved it! I would love to transition into more of a running style like the Tarahumara Indians, but that may take some time.  I have, however, transitioned to a lower heel drop shoe which I think is a great start, right? 🙂

From a previous post, I mentioned the difficulty I was having in finding the right shoe. And the Nimbus 17 did not work out. They were great shoes, but the problem was that this shoe also had a very firm heel that put a lot of pressure on the back of my heel which caused a lot of pain. That was a little bit of a frustrating set back and I ended up having to take a couple of days off from running.

I decided to stick to the Saucony Zealot Iso. This was another shoe that I had tried, but I ended up having really tight calves and felt like that was putting additional stress on my Achilles.  I thought that the lower heel drop was contributing to the tight calves, but I kept the shoes because I really liked them. So, my plan was to try these shoes again, but this time I would run really slow with low mileage until I could strengthen my calves and tendons enough to handle the lower heel drop. That seemed to work because I was able to run with no to little pain in my heel plus I didn’t have any problems with tight calves. 

As for the insertional achilles problem, I don’t think it will ever be completely healed. Some days I don’t even notice that it is there and other days it is tender and sore. When it gets really tender, I just take a day or two off.  I continue to do the heel drop exercises, daily foam rolling, and wearing the boot.

I am really excited to start marathon training. Building the base has been a little tedious and I am anxious to start increasing my mileage. Keeping my fingers crossed that my achilles problem doesn’t get in the way of training.