"How come my foot hurts?" - Christopher McDougall, Born to Run
The past several days I chose not to run. Rest is good. However, so is seeing a doctor and getting the right shoes. But I digress. I chose not to run. In fact, if you had looked through the window of my front room* on Thursday evening, for example, just after dinner, you would have seen a nine year-old in a chair, an almost-seven year-old kneeling over the couch next to his mother, and I in another chair, reading. All of us, quietly reading. And that was better than running, by far.
However, Friday was also prohibitive, as was Saturday. Randy M. did an assessment of my foot. His girlfriend has been suffering from Plantar fasciitis, and though my pain has been on the top of my feet, there has developed associative pain beneath. This is not good. He recommended ice and elevation, which I have entirely failed to do, but who cares, Randy's not some fucking doctor, screw him.
A few weeks ago, the ex-wife asked if I had read Christopher McDougall's Born to Run. I had to admit that not only hadn't I read it, but that I have a copy that was given to me one or two Christmases ago, staring me from the bookshelf.
In the past several days I have 1. finished the first draft of a new play for Great Lakes and 2. completed editing Henry VIII for Cleve Shakes. Right now I am in the fourth of five weekends of performances at Beck Center, I am not in the process of memorizing anything at all. For the first time in a very long time, I have leisure time to read. And so I am reading Born To Run.
I am looking forward to where it goes, though it begins with a demoralizing premise -- runners don't become stronger, running a lot does not make you more resistant to damage. Running a lot is damaging. It's like assuming that since you are hitting yourself in the head with a bat, one day getting hit in the head with a bat will not harm you.
My left foot hurts. I believe I have damaged it. I have two choices, the only two choices a runner has in these situations: Stop running. Run anyway.
Week 14 Total: 19 miles
Training to Date: 372 miles
Distance: 6 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop
Temperature: 28º
Climate: light rain & chilly ... then sun
Weight: 167 lbs.
Snack: chewy granola bar
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes
I am tired of cold. Still, felt good to get out. The Cain Park Neighborhood Association was out in force, picking up trash. Saw a few familiar faces (Hi, Kari!) The foot hurts. Not any more than usual. I have it elevated and iced (Thanks, Randy!)
155-159 BPM Playlist
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
Hey Ya - Outkast
Synchronicity II - The Police
Pretty Boys - Joe Jckson
Jaded - Green Day
Whammy Kiss - The B-52's
Mike Mills - AIR
Whip It - Devo
Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
Puzzlin' Evidence - Talking Heads
The Long Hair of Death - Stereolab
Cooldown:
Driven To Tears - The Police
* Don't ever do this.
7 comments:
My (older, half-) brother runs. He does it in a gym, but he did run the Marine Corps marathon some 8 years back. He has also suffered two MASSIVE heart attacks that both should have killed him. The most recent, just about 6 weeks ago left his heart operating at 35% of capacity. When he complained to his cardiologist that he'd been running and working out regularly, so what good was all that effort!? the doctor told him flat out that if it weren't for the running he wouldn't have survived. Period. So even if your foot hurts. There is good too. You just can't see it.
Yes. All that lives must die, the question is when. And will my feet hurt?
Thanks for the shout-out, David ... I've been enjoying your blog. Don't know if Toni mentioned it, but I saw her later that day at the Planned Parenthood Open House, and I told her and had seen you and how strong you had looked running (true, I have an untrained eye, but you looked comfortable and steady).
p.s. I keep one of those journals where you write down a few lines about what happened that day, and then there's space on the page for multiple years -- so you can see what you were doing that same day a year ago. Turns out that one year ago today, I watched you in your one-man show of "I Hate This"/"And Then You Die."
You are awesome. Thank you. Strange, foot doesn't hurt that much today. Looking forward to kicking out 4 miles tomorrow.
I was doing the show one year ago right now. That is cool. Thanks for that.
Don't give up! On the running, or on the book.
Thank you! I have been enjoying the book, and running, this week.
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