Ryan Matthew

Matthew Ryan C.
11/8/2006
7lbs 2oz

My Trip to the Podiatrist

So yesterday I went to the podiatrist just to get an idea of what was going on with my foot. I was almost embarrassed when he started asking me how long has it been painful. The big toe has hurt for about two years now and the Plantar Fascittis has been around for about 7 years. No doctor, I never had them checked out before, because the pain was never really delibilitating, just kind of annoying. The pain still isn't really that bad, I just want to know what I'm dealing with. So he decides to take some X-rays to see what's going on.

While I'm sitting in the room waiting for the x-rays to develop, I must admit I was feeling a little nervous. I wasn't nervous about there being anything seriously wrong. I can deal with that. I was actually worried that he wouldn’t find anything. I was really hoping he wasn't going to say, it looks like you have a severe case of wussyitis. Take two man pills and call me in the morning. So I was somewhat relieved when he came in the room and said, why don't you come with me. I want to show you some things on the x-ray. You have a lot of stuff going on.

Basically, he told me that I have a runner's foot. He said a lot of things were kind of to be expected when you pound on your feet day after day. However, there were some shocking things in there too. This is what he found:

1. Bunion on the big toe
2. "Arthritic conditions" in the big toe
3. Bone spur on the top of the big toe
4. Bone Spur on the bottom of the big toe
5. Floating cartilage above the 3rd toe, the result of a strangely healed stress fracture which I never knew I had
6. plantar fasciitis
7. Heel Spur
8. I had a break in my ankle at some point fairly recently, and it healed funny. I never knew I broke my ankle.

So his suggestion for treatment was basically just stretching for the plantar fasciitis. He said that he thought if I did a better job of stretching the calves, that would loosen up the achilles, which in turn would help the plantar fascia. Makes sense. I don’t stretch much, so I can handle that. For the bunion, the floating cartilage, and all the bone spurs, he suggested tha I have an outpatient "procedure" to remove these. He said he could do them all at once so I would only have one ting to recover from. Although he never actually used the word, it sounded a lot like foot surgery to me. He also suggested that I get some orthotics (of course) and that I run in something more supportive than my Brooks Axiom.

The orthotics and shoe recommendation came as no surprise. Although I've never been to a podiatrist, it seems to me that most people who do go, usually get orthotics recommended. While I agree that the Brooks Axiom may not be the most supportive shoe in the world, it's not bad, and I'm sticking with it. As for the foot surgery, I was pretty torn when I left the office. I liked the idea of being pain free and getting full range of motion in my big toe back. I wasn't too crazy about the recovery and forced layoff that would accompany the surgery, especially with my wife having a baby any day now. I don't think me being in a walking boot would go over too good in those early days with the new baby.

So after talking to a lot of people, I think I've decided to skip the surgery for now. The pain is nothing new, and if anything it seems to subside when I'm logging heavy mileage for whatever reason. I do think I'm going to get a second opinion with an orthopedist surgeon just to make sure that the first guy didn't miss anything. I mean a lot of the stuff he said made sense, but the broken ankle thing really threw me for a loop. In April of this year, I did hurt my ankle and it was pretty painful. I took a week off from running and when I got back into it, the pain had subsided a lot and I was able to run a marathon three weeks later. That is the only time I had ankle pain, ever. I can't believe it was actually broken. I don't believe it.

As for the running, I struggled through an absolutely miserable 9 mile run this morning. I guess sometimes during the recovery stage, you take a few step forwards and then out of the blue take a step back. It has been only two weeks since Chicago, so I'm not too worried about the occasional bad run. The foot felt fine.

Baby Steps

Yesterday I did my first double since I can't even remember when. It was definitely prior to the marathon, and it was probably prior to the taper as well. I knew I had to kind of force myself into doing it, since I'm a little weak in the self motivation department right now, so I parked my car, eight miles away from work and ran the rest of the way in. After work, I had no choice but to run the eight miles again to go get the car. Whatever works. This also marked the only two times I have run outside since the marathon as well.

The rest of the week consisted of daily 6 mile runs on the treadmill during lunch. Nothing really to note here, other than I am feeling fairly comfortable at 9.5 MPH on the treadmill. Last winter I did most of my easyish runs at 9.0 MPH, so perhaps some progress is being made. During this base phase, which I guess you could say I'm about to re-enter, I'm going to try and spend as much time as possible at a speeds just below my tempo pace. What this basically means is that during most of my runs I hope to spend some portion of it in the 6:00-6:15 range. With no real workouts planned during this phase, that should be manageable this time around. Last year, I was still acclimating myself to the higher mileage, so I was really just surviving a lot of these runs. This time, hopefully, I will be able to run them a little faster to increase the benefits.

Today's run consisted of 3 miles at a 6 min/mile pace. I was a little stiff from yesterday's double starting out, but once I started moving things started to fall into place. I see no reason why I can't keep a schedule like this in place for at least a few more weeks. While I know I probably should get back to doing some longer runs, I just don't have the motivation to do that right now, so I'm giving myself a pass on them, for at least a little while longer. Eventually, the time will come when I'll just naturally want to get back out there. It always does. For now, I'm happy to just do what I'm doing.

A Holding Pattern

Things are slowly starting to come around. I take my marathon recovery pretty seriously so the slow part is to be expected. It's not so much that I need the physical break, although it is nice to let all these little aches and pains heal a little bit. However, the real reason that I take my recovery so serious is because I need the mental break. Right now, the body is willing, but the mind is still a little weak. I figure now is the time to recharge the mind and get that feeling back. You know the one, where you actually look forward to your runs. It is not very often that I can have guilt free slack time, so I'm taking advantage.

That's not to say that I've been doing absolutely nothing. The week following the marathon, I managed to log 4 whole miles. And it only took me one run to accomplish that feat too. This week the goal has changed to at least get out there and do something every day. I'm thinking I need to get the body back to thinking that it is going to sweat at least once a day from now on. With the taper and the recovery, I think I forgot how that feels. So this week, I have done 6 miles each day on the treadmill at lunch. There will most likely be a lot of treadmill running from now on. It's getting cold out and I'm a wimp. The runs have all been comfortable and I usually wind up topping out at 9.5 MPH for at least 4 of those miles. Things feel, hmmm, good. I'll take it, although I still wonder how I managed to run 26.2 at a 6:02 pace though. I couldn't have lost that much fitness already could I?

I finally took the plunge and made an appointment at a podiatrist for next week. I'm really curious to see what they say is wrong with my toe. Like any good runner, I've self-diagnosed the injury, and determined that it must be hallux rigidus (or stiff big toe for those of you who don't know latin). Treatment options are basically nothing or surgery. I'm guessing I'll go with the nothing option but I guess we'll see. Why am I even paying the $10 copay? I've already diagnosed the thing and come up with a treatment plan. I'm in the wrong business.