Ok, so last week I told you about my new shoes and all the "drama" (self-inflicted, of coarse!) surrounding that.
Tuesday I went to meet some people from one of the local running clubs. I had been checking out the facebook pages of a couple clubs in the area and I saw that there were some people who did a Tuesday morning run. Perfect! Both children are in school then and Tuesday is my regular running day. So last Tuesday I met a few women for some hill running. I didn't want to have issues with my feet while I did that so I wore my old shoes. This would also tell me if the issue was my feet or the shoes.
So we met up and ran on the hills. And when I say hills I mean HILLS!!! These things are steep - at least compared to what I'm used to. The training on the hills will do me a lot of good though because the Half that I am doing is rumored to be pretty hilly. There were several walk breaks - I could usually only make it half way up the hill running - and some chatting along the way. I ran 3 miles in 43 minutes for a pace of 14:18. I had no pain in my feet so this told me that there was something going on with the shoes.
Thursday was Y day again. I decided to experiment with my shoes. I typically wear orthotics in my shoes so I decided to try them without. The pain I had been having wasn't my typical plantar fasciitis pain. It felt more like deep bruising in my foot. I thought maybe there was too much arch with the orthotics since the shoes are really supportive.
The pain had been in my left foot. While I was still in the locker room I started having pain in my right foot. Hmmmmm...that was odd. I was still worried since I hadn't figured out a solution and now it seemed to be in my other foot. My left foot felt great without the orthotic though.
I decided to try my right foot *with* the orthotic. See, my arches are uneven. Noticeably so. My right arch is a lot higher than my left. So I thought maybe I needed more height in the arch in my right shoe than I do in my left.
I used the treadmill that day so that I would be close to the locker room if I needed to change anything about my shoes. I keep it slow on the treadmill - anyone who knows me knows how clumsy I am and a speedy treadmill is just asking for trouble. I ran pain-free!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!! Now I know what to do. Left shoe - factory insole...right shoe - custom orthotic. This means that my right orthotic is going to wear out faster than my left but that's a small price to pay to be pain-free. I ran 2.5 miles in 35 miutes for a 14:00 pace.
Saturday was my long run day. We had family over for my son's birthday so I ran later than usual. It was a sunset run. It was a nice change. I ran...drum roll, please...
FOUR AND A HALF MILES!!!!! This is my longest run to date. My older son took the picture. In case you're wondering those things sticking up from the numbers are balloons. He drew those too. He thought we should celebrate. I felt like celebrating too, heeheehee.
I have to say I love the long run. I find myself looking forward to it all week. :-)
As I said earlier, we had family over for my son's birthday. This is the cake that I made:
Angry Birds! We're really big fans of the game in this house. He was thrilled to see it when he got up that morning (I decorate after the kids go to bed.)
And this Queen Pig on the top of the cake:
Good bye for now. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to share the next week's training with you!
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