Zetetical Society Meeting Notes

Well, the foot damage seems to have progressed to the point where I have to take some time off from training to heal up the damage. Six days? Six weeks? Who knows.

Initially, my plan had been to keep on top of endurance training by hitting the bike hard enough to be able to bounce back into high mileage of the foot improves and hopefully make my April and May races. But now I think a better plan would be to wander around the house in my bathrobe with a half empty bottle of Bailey’s and a half smoked double corona muttering “can you hear the loons?” It’s no worse for my dignity than a spinner bike in front of the TV, but it has the added feature of being a priceless investment in future family support for any volume of training.

Yeah, yeah, so I quit running for good last week.

I did basically a 42 mile week this week, 33 running and the rest in cross training on the bike.

The plantar fascia injury is totally blowing up. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Time for my semi-annual “I’m quitting running for good” speech/post.

I just got back from doing 18 miles in the snow in New Balance MT10s, and before God and man, I declare that I’m never running anything over a 10K again unless lives are at stake. If I survive this afternoon, I’d rather eat soy and wear shape up shoes.

I put another 100 miles on the 993s and they did wonders for the foot injury, but feel like running in a poorly-thought out cross between ski boots and a foam cowboy hat. Today, the prospect was shoveled suburban sidewalks and a maybe a plowed high school track if I was lucky, so I put on the MT10 minimalist trail shoes out of fear that I’d hit a lot of ice and blow out my ACL. The 993s are ok on a clear road if you love big heavy shoes that weigh about as much as a knee-high combat boot. On ice… Let’s just say I want to live.

MT10s are basically magic sneakers in the snow. They even create enough traction to run on sidewalk ice if there is a little bit of snow to get some purchase. I did a mile on the track even though it wasn’t plowed. I can’t say enough good things about the shoe. They’re a bit funky on the road since they don’t have a very well-defined area to land on, but the minute there is snow or trail, they’re outstanding.

I’m done with distance. After an hour, I start getting bored. My legs feel dead after 12 miles. My soul feels dead after 14. I have no desire to put in the work to build up a speed base. Mile 18 of today’s run was done at something like a 15 minute pace. I can walk that. I’m doing 42 miles a week and 30 of them are junk miles.

I’m not sure exactly what motivates most runners, but I think it’s just the right mixture of narcissism and self-loathing. It’s all the ego-gratifying smugness of a 5 day a week yoga habit, combined with an incredibly low payoff for the time put in. CrossFit Drywall’s joke about running being a byproduct of boredom addiction seems apt, especially in the dead of winter. It doesn’t even make you thin or strong unless you’re under 30 or starve yourself. There’s a better class of runner that none of this is true for. I’ll never be one of them.

The plantar fascia injury turned into a non-event after a few days with heel pads. A week in MAXIMALIST shoes, New Balance 993s, got me through. I ran about 30 miles and cycled for forty minutes. Getting through 16 miles on Saturday surprised me. I like saying “MAXIMALIST!”

This week, I’m going to try the New Balance MT10s and go back to the 993s if there’s any foot pain. I’ll shoot for 32 miles of running and see how it goes.

I’ve exhausted the universe of running shoes.

I think it’s finally happened. I’ve run out of shoes to try. I blame the minimalist shoe movement. I can actually run in minimalist shoes without knee pain. My knees feel wonderful. I just got a pair of New Balance MT10s that I simply love. It’s just that I can’t run in minimalist shoes without foot pain.

What I thought was a heel bruise from hitting one too many pieces of gravel is actually classic plantar fasciitis. I’m hoping it is from running over gravel in shoes that don’t protect from gravel. I basically managed to struggle up to just shy of 5 hours of running and cross-training this week, but had to cut my long run short because my foot started coming apart at the seams. I wake up every morning with my left foot half curled up in a ball, hobble off, and spend the day unwinding it until it’s just a spot of pain on the heel.

One answer would be to go back to a more supportive shoe, but that would immediately cut back on the mileage I can do because my knees and ankles are in agony in traditional shoes now. I will try to work up to a more supportive shoe if I can. I can also try massage, splinting, icing, etc. etc. We’ll see. It’s better than it was at the start of the week even with the shortened long run. Hopefully I can get back in the game with some shorter runs and this will heal up so I don’t have to DNS my spring races.