And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

It’s been a week and a half since my last run, and in that time I’ve reinstated a serious yoga addiction and started an anti-inflammatory regiment for what turned out to be a problem with my sciatic nerve.

Neil and I went for a fun bike ride on Sunday with friends (we rode from mid-Stow to Hudson for lunch at Aladdin’s and, of course, treats at Main Street Cupcakes—I had to introduce new people!), which only left me mildly uncomfortable by Monday morning. The pedaling-while-seated action wasn’t bad at all on my lower back, but standing to pedal up hills and hitting some too-big bumps didn’t make my 6:30 a.m. yoga routine easy. But I’m back in the game!

So, the plan is to feel out the rest of the week and (fingers crossed) go for a very light run on Sunday morning. I’ve been doing plenty of walking, and I’m hoping that the combination of yoga, stretching, other exercises, regular heat and anti-inflammatory meds will enable me to get back on the road.

I swear for someone who believes the only roadblocks in life are oneself, I sure do hold myself up with my stupid injuries. But I won’t let it get me down: I’ll just think of myself like a car. Replace a few things that are broken and I’ll be as good as new.

And once I’m at least back at it, I’d really like to make my way to Cleveland Clinic whose optimal running program includes gait analysis, strength and flexibility testing, injury assessment and a conditioning program among other things. More than anything, I’d like to hear what they had to say (and recommend) about my running-on-the-outside-of-my-left-foot problem and how to correct it.

At least I know how I started running on the outside of my foot: when I began running in early 2006, I was kicking it with a pair of 1992 Nike running shoes that I wore for my brief track stint in middle school. It never dawned on me that a super-crappy pair of shoes could so badly damage my foot. They had absolutely no support (and now that I’ve been running with good shoes for the past year, I try those suckers on and don’t wonder at all why it took me a while to really get into running) and left me limping with some on-the-verge-of-serious foot/tendon/spirit problems.

The pain was primarily on the inner part of my foot, so I started walking/running on the outside to alleviate it. And here I am over a year and some later recovering from my recovery method. (No wonder people have coaches! It might behoove me to keep someone around to help me make semi-decent running decisions for once!) But the moral, kids, is that healthy shoes help keep your feet healthy.


Today: either a walk or bike ride at lunch, yoga in the evening, and perhaps another walk with Neil after that. I’m going to slowly increase the speed on my walks and test out the pressure and impact on my left side. Two weeks off shouldn’t be the end of my running fitness as I know it…. Right? I haven’t taken off this much time since I started, so I’m a light anxious about my fate, but eager to get going. Again.