MCM Training Update

In case y'all have forgotten I am training for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30. I haven't written a lot about my training primarily because, up until recently, it has been less than stellar. Running during the summer months was absolutely brutal. The heat and humidity exacerbated my asthma,  forced me to cut many runs short, and I was questioning if running MCM was still a good idea. I came very close to throwing in the towel and deferring my entry until 2012. In short, I had lost my running mojo.

At the same time, I started developing some foot pain. The pain was on the top of the foot between the top of my ankle and where the shoe laces are on my shoes. At first I thought I was tying my shoes too tightly, but the pain was still there after loosening them up. The foot hurt when I walked, not when I ran. A few weeks ago, I saw a podiatrist mainly to determine if there was a stress fracture or some other serious injury there. The diagnosis came back as an overuse injury. The doctor suggested cutting down on mileage, compression, and ice. I knew there was no way I could cut down on my mileage 6 weeks before MCM but I did start wearing a compression ankle sock and tried to ice my foot as often as I could. I told Coach Jeff what was going and he asked me to send him pictures of the bottoms of my shoes (Newton Gravitas) so he could analyze the wear pattern. This is what I sent him:

Within a few minutes he determined that I was "stabbing" rather than planting "square."  Coach explains it really well in this video he made especially for me.



Back to the training front....I feel like I'm back on track. The past 2 weeks have been solid. Temperatures have been cooler and my paces have been coming down to the levels where they were earlier this year when I was training for Vermont City. The Jewish holiday "season" is fast approaching with Rosh Hashana starting next Wednesday night (ack!). The extra non-running days will give me a chance to get some extra sleep as well time to rest whatever aches and pains I have. I'm happy I stuck with the training and I'm starting to get excited about the race. I have 2 more "big" weeks coming up then it's time to taper.