Link Friday

I really just have one link this week due to me looking for reasons why my leg hurts and what to do about my leg hurting.

Ask the Experts: Prevent Injuries

Looking at anatomy diagrams it's apparent that my injury isn't the Achilles, but more like Flexor Hallucis Longus or the Peroneneus Brevis. I also remembered in my workout the day before the injury that I placed my feet underneath a weight machine in the gym to do some crunches on a Swiss Ball. The feet underneath the machine pinned them in such a way to cause irritation in the feet and shin area. Right where I now have pain.

I was reading the above linked article and it has some great information about my injury as did the Competitor article titled Running Past 40 in the Sept. '09 issue. Bottom line. Stay off it for three days and then half my long run. So it looks like Saturday's run will only be six to seven miles which should make the legs feel good.

Wheel Fell Off

As luck would have it that after I confirmed hotel reservations for the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon and Half something would happen within minutes, like a leg falling off or a foot. It wasn't minutes but it was hours. This morning's run looked promising at the start. Cool weather, the rain had stopped, my inflammation from the cold I had over a month ago had stopped (more on this in a minute). Yes, the run looked pretty promising. I started warming up like I do every Monday and Wednesday and I could tell the warm up was going to take longer than normal. I was about two miles into the warm up when I decided to start the workout and accelerate. That's when the wheel came off.

Below my calf and to the side a little which may be part of the Achilles tendon I felt a sharp pain. Not like one of the dull pains that now crop up daily but are never in the same place, two days in a row. This pain was new. As I walked back to the house the only thing I could think of that was different was the removal of the orthotic. I had thought since all of the PF pain was gone I could go back to just using insoles. Wrong. I might be able to, as I did a long stretch of the calf muscle and tendon half way through the warm up. But I think it was the missing orthotic. Running with it for the last nine months has caused my running form to adapt to it and when it was gone, it was like the ball bearings were removed.

But looking to the bright side I get to try out some rehab products. I went to Sports Authority and picked up a pool running belt. As I tend to run in the shallow end, which will strain the Achilles, I need to move to the deep end and thus the need for the belt to keep me afloat. I also picked up a calf/shin support to wear during the day and when I get to run, which may be Friday or Saturday at the earliest. I also picked up some KT Tape or Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape. You may have seen several athletes wearing the tape that looks like a foot-wide spider is on their shoulder. I saw Olympic Gold Medalist Kerri Walsh wearing it while playing volleyball. I've heard good things about it. I'll try it out and see.

So about the inflammation. I quit Diet Cokes and all other sodas, except for plain soda water, about two months ago. The reason for quitting had to do with the aspartame. Besides the loss of caffeine, I noticed my inflammation didn't clear as fast after I had a cold as it did when I drank Diet Coke. The only thing I can attribute this to is that I've heard Coke is able to take off the acid crust on a battery, so it had no problem clearing up some inflammation. Once I had a Diet Coke, I had no problem with inflammation. Interesting.

Want to read something interesting? See how coffee and tea are decaffeinated.

90% ankle is back to 100%

The ankle I turned yesterday has returned to 100%. No discoloration, the swelling went down with ice. It's all good.