I've mentioned in a previous post how I've noticed significant improvement in my right foot following a yoga class, and that it occured not just once, but twice. At some point late last week, I realized that it was almost fully better, just a small spot of inflammation left. It's interesting when you've had something amiss for a decent period of time - when you really dig into it, you really learn specifics about it. For example, in this case, I was able to actually feel the inflammation. So there were times when I'd be walking along and not feel anything, but if I rolled the tendon that runs across the top of my foot which connects my big toe to my ankle, I could actually feel the resistance brought on by the inflammation. So I knew that I wasn't fully healed, even though there were times it felt ok when walking.
So when I went to Yoga on Monday, part of the goal was to knock out some more inflammation. The thing is with Bikram Yoga - if you ask them, they'll tell you it heals whatever ails you. They claim certain poses stimulate your this gland and that gland and helps with weight loss and helps with sleep and all this other hokey dokey BS. I've generally ignored all that, and just bought into the overall health benefits that are more tangible - core strength, balance, flexibility, etc. But this recent incident has me thinking that maybe there is just a tad more to it than what I've been letting on. I still don't believe that standing with your forehead touching your knee and your throat choked helps your fix your metabolism - but by Wednesday morning after Mondays class - the inflammation was gone. And not just 'I dont feel it while walking around' gone, but gone in that I could actually feel the tendon and feel it rolling under my thumb with no resistance. Just one of those things that makes you say 'Well I'll be damned..'
Anyhow, with that progress, I started getting amped up for going for another run this weekend. I wasn't sure whether to keep it conservative - just do something like five miles to make sure to not aggrevate the foot, or do something more. I figured I'd do something more - if I re-aggrevated it, it wouldn't be that bad (it had been steadily improving , even with the running - although the running did set it back every time) and it'd heal rather quickly. So I ended up doing my 11 mile loop around the local reservoir. I initially thought I'd just go at a nice easy pace, but doing so would mean more time pounding pavement - and I figured I might already be pushing things a bit, so I wanted to minimize the number of footstrikes for that distance. I also didn't want to push quite at a race half marathon pace either, so I ended up making it a threshold run - keeping the HR between 160-165.
It was really nice to get back out running again, especially without the mild aggrevation every time I planted my right foot down. I could tell pretty quickly that I'd lost a step over the past two months, with only having done about 30 miles total in that time. I'm ok with that, though - it's to be expected with a reduction in both mileage and quality workouts.
In the end, I don't think I reaggrevated the foot at all - at least, I can't feel anything. I did my ice bath afterwards (which, BTW, really suck when doing them in the winter when the house air temp is in the low 60's), and we'll see what happens over the next couple days. However I think I'm at a spot where I'll probably do anywhere between 10-15 miles during runs on the weekends, weather and road/sidewalk conditions permitting.
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