A new kind of running for my ladies out there

Since I’ve been dealing with this “stress fracture” I’ve been taking it very easy. This coming Wednesday will mark  four weeks since I’ve attempted to run. I still workout 3-4 times a week, giving myself a day of rest in between not to overwork my foot and for the most part I’ve been feeling great.

However, Houston, we have a problem.

After adding the orthotics to my sneakers, my knee has been fabulous. I haven’t had any knee pain (usually the knee will hurt even without running) but I really think they is the cause of my stress fracture.
While I’ve been wearing the orthotics to the gym, I haven’t been using them in my walking sneakers (AKA my Sketchers that I wear around campus while I’m working.) Last week I decided to put them in my Sketchers because I felt I needed to get used to them, and only then did I start to feel the pain in my foot come back. It wasn’t anything major, but enough for me to notice a difference.

But yesterday’s walk clarified it for me. My foot does not like these orthotics.

I set out for a nice, long walk around the Charles River yesterday so I could get my exercise outdoors. (I’ve been going to the gym to use the elliptical and balance ball and I’ve been missing my outdoor runs a lot) While I was walking around I realized that my foot was really starting to bother me, so I had to turn around and try to get back in as little pain as possible. I walked about 5 miles total, but my foot ached all night last night and like in the beginning, the pain shot all the way up to my hip.  I’ve walked about that much at work with no problems throughout these past few weeks so I didn’t think a long walk would damage me. Common sense says to ditch the orthotics but it’s really been helping my knee. UGH!

Views from the Charles:

 

 

OK now on to the fun stuff.

Back in April I ran a 5K in Nashua, N.H., that I found while stumbling across the local running blog scene. While at the race  I noticed someone taking a lot of pictures and thought, “This must be the author of the blog I was reading!” and like the friendly journalist I am, asked her if she had a blog. She was shocked (and grateful) that I recognized her,  so we chatted for a bit.

This was my silly “I just beat my best 5K time!!!!” picture at the Otter Run 5K in Nashua.

I recently checked out her blog Trail Pixie Trespas, and found two new amazing things: pacing and the Nuu Muu.

Let me start out by saying I am not being paid to write about the Nuu Muu, nor have I received anything from the company. I saw Emily’s review and how cute she looked sporting the Nuu Muu, so I asked her if I could post her link to my blog. These look super cute and I know some of you out there really enjoy wearing running skirts, so I thought this would be something to pass along. Check out Emily’s review here.

She also talks about pacing for longer races and it sounded amazing. I know for a fact that I would never have finished my 15K in the time I did if it wasn’t for my friend Ann who pushed me through those last two miles. I run alone about 99.9% of the time, and now I am dreading having to run my 1/2 marathon (if this foot ever heals!) by myself. That’s why when I realized there are actually people who help get you through the end of your Ultras, I said, That’s AWESOME! I wanna do it!!!

Check out Emily’s blog for more info on the Nuu Muu and see how awesome pacing is.

Also, I wanted to point out how fabulous my dinner was last night.
Who would have thought that I would start using Almond Butter as my main condiment?

And this is just part of what got me through the foot pain. What a stinkin cutie! Nothing like sleeping on our moving boxes…at least the cats can see the fun in packing.