Physical Therapy: More Painful Than Your Injury

I am currently entering week four of non running training. I've been biking so much I may have bruised my tailbone, and swimming everyday that it's warm enough to go into the lake. And while I love swimming, and biking is fun, eep, that's scary. I mean, I will have been out for a month of marathon training. Can you do that? It seems like you maybe can.

The series of events: Saturday I woke up super early to do a photo shoot for my running group. I was torn. When we first talked about it I said yes, because surely I'd be back by August 3rd! Right? Wrong. It was extra painful for me because I knew I was awfully close to recovered, and everyone else was jumping out of their boots with excitement. It was half marathon day. I was left behind, literally, as they all went off with a spring in their step (at least at first) to run half of what they'll run on Oct 13th. Everyone seemed so healthy.

But during the shoot I got to talk to my team captain. I haven't had a lot of one on one interaction with him, because it's a big group, and he's a busy guy. But he gave me some really excellent advice. Apparently there are some physical therapists who will do free screenings with people like me who are running a 'thon. He also said the longest his girlfriend ran before the race last year was 13 miles, but she was able to finish. It is better to be healthy and undertrained than mildly hurting or overtrained. Of course it is even better to be healthy and properly trained, and while I am super jealous of my other n00b friends who have been able to do that, I have not. Physical limitations are stupid.

Long story short, I went to a PT yesterday. He explained a bunch of things about my feet that all made me predisposed for this injury, including the way years of retail and being required by management to wear shoes that put looks before your well being have really screwed up my feet (plantar fasciitis, anyone?). And then he gave me a list of exercises that sounded super easy and short, and one more week to heal on my own. On Friday I do a test walk/run (basically intervals... basically starting at the beginning of training...) to see how it goes. If it hasn't healed up by then, he wants to send me to a sports doctor to accelerate the process. C'mon healin on my own!

So for the moment, this is my gym:

They may look innocent, but they are actually devices of fear and pain!

 And while I still felt pretty fit and strong, the stupid muscles that I am supposed to work with these were on fire last night. It was a higher pain level than my foot has been for the last two weeks, so it seemed unfair. But when I woke up this morning, for the first time in years I took my first few steps out of bed with no pain. Take that retail! 

My list of homework. I hate this homework!

So, armed with medieval torture methods, new shoes, rest, and ice, I am in full recovery mode. In one week I will let you know if the magic has cured me, or not. If you want to know more about achilles tendinopathy, there is a lot of great info here. Incidentally, that list of risk factors? I had seven of them... plus the plantar fasciitis that isn't on there. Huzzah!  

(Healing thoughts and juju are appreciated as well. We are in an all methods go situation here. Code Orange people, Code Orange!)