My foot doctor and I should just become besties, as often as I need to go in to see him.


Why do I feel like another one of these is in my future?

I think I had mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I had been having some pain in my right foot again. (For those playing along at home, that's the foot that I had my first stress fracture in last November and December.)

The pain is in a similar spot to where the stress fracture was, but it doesn't feel exactly the same as the stress fracture did. My stress fracture radiated pain from the outside of my foot into my heel and ankle.

This pain radiates from the outside of my foot through the center of my foot.

I mean it could still most definitely be a stress fracture, just in a different place, but the pain is also different in that it's the worst first thing in the morning when I wake up, and then tends to ebbed a little bit during the day.

When I first stand up to get out of bed, the pain is pretty bad. I'd put it at a 7 on a scale of 10. It's painful to support my weight. But after walking around for a little bit the pain starts to fade a bit.

The pain is also most notable when I'm barefoot, but if I'm wearing a shoe with a firm sole for support, it's much, much less noticeable.

Activity doesn't seem to make the pain any better or worse. The few runs I've done lately haven't seemed to aggravate it, but I've been trying to rest to see if some time off would help.


Running how I miss you

And I have no idea what would have caused it. I am not running heavy volumes. I definitely eased back into activity when I got over my last stress fracture, so I don't know what the heck is going on with my foot.

So after resting for a week or so and not seeing any real improvements, I'm calling on my new BFF -- my sports doc -- to see if we can figure out what's going on.

I was able to snag an appointment for Wednesday after work so hopefully we'll be able to get some answers then.

Who wants to take bets on whether or not I end up in another walking boot?

So I've been working with Kris and Virginia, my online personal trainers, for a little more than a month now, and I thought it was time to do a recap of the first phase of the program.


Wrapping up an EP Fitness Prep workout

The program that I'm doing is three months in total, so each phase is about four weeks. My first phase was focused on building a strong strength base and cleaning up my diet. You might remember when I first talked about the program in December, I wasn't too keen on the whole idea of a diet plan.

In general, I don't like diets so I pretty much operate on an everything in moderation mentality with a focus on whole, healthy foods most of the time. But I promised Virginia and Kris that I would give the eating plan a try, and I have to say, I really like the way I feel while eating this way.


Protein-packed breakfast

The diet focuses on increasing the amount of protein I'm eating and focusing on high quality carbs, while timing your meals around your workouts so you get the most bang for your nutrition buck. The timing part has definitely been tricky for me, but I'm slowly starting to get the hang of it.

I'm struggling a little bit with the amount of food Kris and Virginia want me to be eating. It's lots of little meals throughout the day, which is pretty different from how I normally eat. So I'm definitely still adjusting, but I notice that I have a lot more energy, and I'm a lot more alert with the major increase in in protein and veggies.

In terms of the workouts, the first phase focused on all of the major muscles groups. I did lots of squats and deadlifts for my legs.

And then I became best friends with the cable machine for my upper body.



That was a pretty huge deal for me because I've always been pretty terrified of the cable machine. It's overwhelming and there are a million things you can do with it, and I would just look at it and be confused and not no where to start.

But walking into the gym with a solid plan every day, I know exactly what I need to do. I know what settings to put the machine on and what weights to use.

Kris and Virginia also give me a spreadsheet to track my food intake from Monday-Wednesday and all of my workouts during that time as well so they can monitor progress and address any issues I might be having.

We email back and forth each week, and they both check in on how the program is working, how it's impacting my running and if I'm having any problems.


Slowly getting faster

I definitely could see a little bit of muscle definition popping up after a month of solid strength training, and I'm really excited to continue to improve and gain strength as I move through phase two!

If you have questions or want to learn more about the online personal training that I'm doing, you can check out EP Fitness Prep's website.

So training for the Shamrock Half Marathon was supposed to start on January 6, but I was having some more problems with my feet, and I was afraid I'd somehow developed yet another stress fracture, even though I haven't been running much at all.



I decided instead of risking yet another injury that would sideline me for a few months, I'd give it a few days and see if some rest helped.

Luckily it seemed to, so even though I'm now starting training a week later than I wanted to, I'm fairly certain my feet are going to be OK. (Or at least I'm really hoping they are.)

After the polar vortex peaced out, DC was gifted some pretty nice weather on Sunday, and I was excited to head out for a run in just capris and a long sleeve shirt.



My original plan was to just do three miles and see how my feet felt. But since everything felt good and the weather was gorgeous, I just kept going. In the back of my mind, I knew I was supposed to run six miles as part of the training plan, so I decided to see how six miles would feel.

I'm super happy to report the run went way better than I expected!

I haven't run more than three miles since June, when I was sideline with my second stress fracture, so I was really worried that my speed and endurance were going to be garbage.

But I ran faster than I expected, and while I was tired when I finished, and my legs are a little sore today, overall, I held up really well over the longer distance. (It amazes me that right now I'm calling six miles a longer distance, when just a year ago, I was running 20 milers to train for a marathon.)



Yesterday's run was a nice little confidence boost that maybe, just maybe, I will actually be able to have a decent race in Virginia Beach in March. I'm not trying to break any time goals, but I was getting really nervous that I would not be able to run a good race and that my endurance just wouldn't bounce back.

Here's hoping my feet stay healthy, and I can make it through a training cycle without another injury!