Running Program - Week 10

I had to take a couple weeks off of full out running for a few weeks, hence no real updates until today. As I explained in my previous post, my ankle got tweaked from being attacked by a dog while running. So, I decided to take week 8 off of running almost completely. I did do a tiny bit of running, but for the most part I exercised on a stationary bike while staying at a hotel. Which brings me to another minor set back.

It appears that I was pushing too hard on the stationary bike that by the end of week 8 I began to develop plantar fasciitis. Ugh...I was scared of it at first. But, after some great advice from friends and researching more on how to care and prevent problems, I was able to get in a fair amount of running during week 9. My 60 minutes of running on Monday of week 9 was a result of me going absolutely crazy from not really running very long for over a week! It was a bit dumb, but my whole thought that evening was, "I don't care if this hurts, I just want to run!!!" :)

So, with a lot of extra stretching and keeping my foot taped, when week 10 rolled around I felt good and ready to get back into running every day again. I opted to continue where I left off from week 7 but to reduce my pace a bit. I admit, the first three runs were pretty tough. Especially since my thigh/buttocks area muscles on my right leg were really tight and causing my right foot to point inward and land where my left foot had been. Quite a bit of extra strain on my body as a result of improper running form.

To fix that I began focusing on making sure to do butterfly and pretzel stretches to get those areas really stretched out. By Thursday right foot was pointed outward just a tad, and by Friday and Saturday I was back to my old proper running form! Just in time, too. That 60 minute run was pretty brutal since I had to do it after standing on my feet for 5 hours working and running around noon, so it was much warmer than what I am normally used to. Had my form been out of whack I don't think I would have made it through the whole run.

Another life circumstance that has made running a bit more difficult than usual over the last month has been traveling for work. I've been out of town for two weeks at a time doing construction oversite. During that time, morning runs are almost impossible to do if I want to run outside. I don't really care to go running around in pitch black darkness in a place where I'm not completely familiar. So, while traveling, my running has been exclusively evening running. I have always struggled more running in the evenings. However, it has been good to get used to it since morning runs are not always possible even when life isn't quite so hectic.

Anyway, despite some set backs and the ever busy life of traveling out of town for work, I'm just so happy to be back running!!!