Wow, I just realized that my last post was a month ago!!! Yes life gets busy but that is not a good enough excuse to let my blog go to the wayside so I will need to do better than this….anyway, moving on….
A couple of things:
I had a visit with Dr. E at Arctic Chiropractic who not only has been treating my heel pain and achilles issues, he has also taken the time to discuss my diet because of persistent inflammation. My diet is fairly healthy with lots of veggies, chicken, fish, and moose. Then I pile on all the inflammatory sugars. I am a junk food junkie and it is hard for me to not have something sweet EVERY day. I wrote a blog not too long ago about my love for Cokes and how I would like to decrease my intake. The strategies that I talked about worked okay, but I knew I could cut back even more. I haven’t had a coke in almost 2 weeks now. Although, I have continued to support my sweet tooth with all kinds of chocolates and other sweets.
So Dr. E suggested the books shown here to use as guidelines to help get my diet on track. As it so happens, I already had both of these books at home, neither of which I have actually read. My husband did the Whole 30 diet plan a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t do it with him because it was just too strict for me. So given these two choices, I decided to go with the 21 Day Sugar Detox. And I am realizing, strict paleo like diets (or any diet for that matter) are just not for me.
Initially, I tried to follow this book’s diet plan verbatim. I just felt so full, even to the point where I was skipping meals because I just was not hungry. I just did not like that feeling. But, I also wasn’t craving sweets either which was a good thing. I think this plan has helped me to get back on track to healthy eating and cutting down on the sweets, but I will use it as a guideline vs following it so strictly as Dr. E had suggested.
Next: Despite all the running science and information regarding types of shoes required for natural biomechanics, proper foot strike, static stretching and a whole host of other data, I have decided to just do what I think is going to work for me. For now, and it is always changing, the following is what I have decided on:
Asics Gel Kayano 22
— I have traded my lower heel to toe drop shoes in for these more supportive Asics Gel Kayano 22 (with a heel to toe drop of 12mm) and I am loving them! I have added the insert shown here for additional support. I have had achilles problems ever since I tried the lower heel to toe drop shoes of 4-8 mm and I am hoping this switch is going to be an improvement.
–Next I have stopped working at a mid foot to toe foot strike and am just landing as naturally as I can which seems to be more of a heel strike. I have even put the bounce (not very efficient I know) back into my running style.
–And forget cadence. As I get stronger and can run faster, I am sure that my cadence will increase accordingly. Right now my cadence is in the mid 160s and that is okay with me. Trying to run at a 170-180 cadence was killing me.
–I am doing static stretching after every run. I wasn’t stretching before because I was so confused by some of the data out about stretching, but it has greatly improved my achilles problems.
The bottom line is I just want to run and I can’t run constantly injured! All the changes that I made before based on my interpretation of the running science and information simply has not worked out well for me. And I am determined to finish the NYC Marathon this year!!! I can’t defer again and my times have not been fast enough for a time qualifier. So this is my year!!
I am hoping by improving my diet along with these other changes will help me fulfill this marathon goal! 🙂
Happy Running!
You keep going…find your happy pace!