Sunday, January 19, 2014 - Wednesday, January 22, 2014
We're both still sick. I feel like everything is getting better but my ears and headaches; Wendy is slowly climbing her way back to health. So far we have only really missed six miles and a cross-training day. That's not too bad but I don't think I'll be out to run the three miles tomorrow either.
I feel worse about missing these pre-training runs then I do about being sick. It just weighs on your consciousness. Runners don't like to be sidelined for anything. We run in sickness and in health, on the good days and the bad, in the arctic winters and in the blazing heat. Once my brain is set on running, that's it, I'm running. I'm almost lost without it.
These pre-training runs are especially important to me because I'm out of shape. Last year I trained for months before actual training started for the half marathon. I was going to school that had a gym and an indoor track. I ran all of the time without having to go out into the cold. This year has been particularly bitter outside, but I won't blame it on that.
This year I have a boyfriend and I like to spend my time with him. We're both runners. He has a membership to a gym that is open twenty-four hours a day, something I need with my second shift working schedule, but is EXPENSIVE. Not something I can afford right now.
We did run together and he likes to race with me (in front of me), but that was all in the summer and now it's cold and he doesn't like to run with a lot of clothes on. He walks ten miles a day anyway as a postal carrier so I'm sure he's cold enough the majority of his day and he gets his miles in so going back out into the cold on my days off of work is never on his to do list.
What is on my to do list is getting new shoes. Although my shoes only have 40.6 miles on them, my knees are starting to hurt and I know from previous experience that this pain is bad news bears.
Last year, right before I started school I needed me shoes to run in and take my Zumba class in. I went to a shoe store that had a BOGO 50% of deal and bought a pair of shoes that were comfortable to run in, were cute and I thought wouldn't be too bad for dancing either.
As the first few weeks of the semester went by, I was running six days a week and taking Zumba two days a week when all of a sudden during week five or so my knees started to bother me. I stopped running so much, talked to some friends that I run with and decided to put a few new stretches in my routine and buy a couple of bottles of Osteo Bi Flex for my joints. Two weeks later my knees looked like watermelons and I was sidelined.
I saw the schools trainer to see what she thought and she gave me a card for the physical therapist that the school uses. After making my first appointment and doing all of the ridiculous things you have to do for physical therapy sessions, my doctor finally looked at my shoes and told me that I need a more structured shoe that supports my heel and arch because I'm an Overpronator.
I looked at the Asics website for an explication of probation and this is what it said:
Pronation is how a runner's foot rolls laterally between footfall and toe-off. Underpronation is when the foot rolls outwards, overpronation is when it rolls inwards, and a neutral pattern is when little rolling occurs.
Matching a shoe's properties with the runner's running style will increase comfort, running efficiency, and contribute to decreasing the risk of injury.
An Overpronator is predisposed to an inward rolling motion as the foot progresses toward toe-off.
Basically, because I'm an Overpronator and I did not have the correct, supportive shoe, my knees turned into a giant summer fruit.
So I was recommended a specialty running shop that measured my feet, watched me walk, assessed my gate and felt my arch. The amazingly patient sales person told me I overpronate when I run, this means sturdier shoes and since my doctor sent me to their shop, I also get a discount on my purchase. Score!
After an hour and a half of trying on shoes and running down their little running lane that was in front of the window that aligned the entire building, I finally choose the Asics DS-Trainer 17. They had extra arch support, a heel cup and I couldn't bend them in half. My doctor said that was a no-no for overpronaters. So, $112.00 later I was out the door with shoes that hour me through all of my training, the half marathon and a few more races after that. They lasted me two hundred miles before I needed a new pair.
I never had knee pain after I found this shoe, and I knew I should have bought two. After I knew retirement was just around the corner for my sneaks, I turned to the internet to find me another pair of these magical shoes. I could nut find a single pair in my size. Not online, not in stores, but on eBay... nowhere. I was bummed!
Back to the running store I go. I get the same trustworthy sales person, I try six new pairs of shoes on, I run down the same little track lane that puts me on display to passing vehicles and nothing felt right. The sales person told me to try a pair of compression socks that have a tab advice the heel to try and stabilize my skipping heel. I try it, it feels better, I know it's not perfect but I buy the shoes and the $13.99 socks (for one pair!!!) and I go home with my new Asics DS-Trainer 18s.
I knew I should have listened to myself. Now with only 40.6 miles on these shoes, I have to give them up and find a new pair. Yes, these shoes are for overpronaters and were the new model of my old shoes, but this year they got rid of the heel cup and I guess that ruined the whole shoe for me. Why would Asics do that to me!?
I'm upset I did not think I had other options. Now I have to find money that I don't have to buy new shoes, the right new shoes, but I'll do it so I won't end up with mammoth knees (and so I won't have to buy fourteen dollar socks). I'll also start doing the butt raises, the leg lifts, the ice cups and buy more of the Osteo Bi Flex. If all of that got me through last year, twice as much should get me though this year.
I already think this marathon might kill me.
