Today’s run was the kind of run I would rather not have, EVER! My running group was meeting up with our Portland counterparts and I was really looking forward to the change of scenery. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the entire run was going to be hills. Plus, my podiatrist gave me the ok to run 3-4 miles max at a time so I was hoping to do 4, but was willing to do 3 if things weren’t going very well. I was screwed from the get go.
First of all, with my bad knee, I’m supposed to avoid hills, but I decided I was going to take it like a trooper anyway. Almost as soon as the incline began, my left achilles and calf started burning. My knee wasn’t hurting yet, but it wasn’t far behind. My heel started out ok. I was trying to stay on the balls of my feet as much as possible so that my heel wasn’t hitting the pavement. That worked well on the track on Wednesday, not so good on the uneven sidewalks of NW Portland. So I walked some of the way up the steepest part of the hill and most of the last .25 mile. After turning around and beginning to run down hill, my foot felt like it was hitting flat on the ground and just piercing pain in my heel.
I started running on the ball of my left foot again while still using my entire right foot. Don’t ask me why, except that I think it made me feel more stable going down hill. So yes, I totally ran gimpy today. I did 4 miles and only ran well the first mile, maybe 1.5 miles, after that? Pure crap! My heel is still hurting tonight so although I’d love to run a couple of miles tomorrow just to have an enjoyable run, I’m debating if I’m pushing my heel too much. $%^&* Damn heel!
