A Little Bit of Hope

I walked about 2 miles this morning and my foot felt pretty good.  Yesterday I iced with a water bottle so I could massage at the same time, took ibuprofen all day, used a tennis ball and golf ball to trigger point, and sucked it up and took a full on ice bath.  (How hard core of me!)  I figured if my leg muscles are pinching a nerve that an ice bath wouldn't hurt.  Well, it actually hurt a lot, but only until my legs and feet went numb, and then it felt pretty good.  But, it made getting out of the bathtub interesting. 

Anyway, I'm doing more of the same today, skipping the ice bath though.  I will settle for just an ice foot soak. 

For some reason I decided to put my "old" running shoes on, the ones I prefer and love.  As soon as I put them on my foot felt better.  Not pain free, but less pain.  My old shoes support the part of the tendon/arch that hurts the most. 

In an attempt to manage the blisters I was getting I switched from the "old" running shoes to my "back-up" pair, which never have been all that comfortable.  But, I didn't get blisters with them.  Well, I started thinking back to when my foot started bothering me and guess what, it's when I started wearing the "back-up" shoes. 

While I feel like there are probably multiple contributing factors to the foot issue I'm having I am relieved to find that my "old" for real running shoes take a lot of pressure off the sore spot. 

I had sort of decided I was going to have to wear the "back-up" shoes for the race, but nope, not now.  While I haven't done more than 8 miles in my "old" running shoes, I still feel like going with them may be the best option at this point.  (When I say old running shoes...not old as in need replacing - they are close to that point but I can still get a few more runs out of them, I mean old as in the back-up shoes are newer but mush less comfortable.  Learned my lesson about discounted prices and no returns!)

I have a test run scheduled for Monday, and am running with a friend, so if it gets bad she can drive me back to my car.  It would have to be pretty bad though...I only plan on running 2 ish miles and it's very flat, so if it gets so bad I can't walk back to my car then I probably won't be racing anyway. 

I HOPE that with the daily care, rest, and massage therapy that I will have the least amount of pain possible for the race.  I'm not hoping to be pain free I think I need more than two weeks of rest/treatment to get to that point, but I am hoping for a bearable amount of pain that will allow me to finish.

First goal is to finish, second goal is to stay on pace.