Well after two weeks in a walking boot, things seem to be getting moderately better on the foot front.



Last week, I had orders from the doctor to try walking around my house without the boot on. I tried it out first on Wednesday and did not have a good experience. There was still more pain than I thought there should be, and of course, that made me really question whether or not I'd be able to do the half marathon in March.

But then by Friday, things seemed to be a little bit better. I was able to walk around my house bootless without too much pain. So I got ambitious and decided to try my luck on the elliptical.

Shockingly, it went really well. I was able to do about 25 minutes pain-free in my pretty new running shoes (which ironically arrived at my house the same day my mom mailed my walking boot back).



I'm still wearing the boot when I have to walk long distances or when I know I will be on my feet a lot (like to commute to work or run to meetings in the office), but when I'm home, I'm largely going boot-free.

And last night, I went to a Super Bowl party without my boot on and was totally fine. (To be fair, I did not walk to the party, and I spent most of the game sitting on the sofa, so it's not like I was on my foot a whole lot anyway, but man it was just nice to be out of the house in a regular pair of shoes).

So per the doctor's orders, now that I can walk around at home without the boot, I'm going to try to amp up my cross-training to see if I can keep my cardio endurance at a reasonable rate for the next two weeks. I have my follow-up appointment at the doctor two weeks from today, and if all goes well, and I'm hoping to get the all clear to start running again.

So as of now, we're just over a month out from the half. When I (hopefully) get clearance from the doctor to run, we'll be two weeks out. Truthfully, I don't know if the race is realistic or not.

I think if I can maintain and build my endurance these next two weeks, there's a possibility I can still run. But so much of that will depend on how things go starting after my doctor's appointment. I don't know how my foot will react to jumping back into running. Maybe it will be totally fine, maybe it won't. It's all kind of a giant question mark -- which is of course driving me nuts because I'm not really a fan of uncertainty.

I'd like to be able to make it to the start line on race day though -- even if I won't have a perfect race. I don't mind if I finish super slow or need to walk a ton. I'd be willing to do all that. What I don't want is to get hurt running the race.

So that's where things stand right now. My plan is to do what I can to get myself to the start line -- and then I guess we'll just have to see how things for from there.

Well friends depending on how you look at it, I either got good news or bad news about my foot last week.



If we're looking at it as good news, my foot isn't broken. The X-ray was clean. There's no stress fracture and my doctor things I should still be able to train for and run the half marathon in March.



If we're looking at it as bad news, I have a stress reaction injury in my second metatarsal -- basically right under the ball of my foot. This means it's extremely painful for me to put any weight on it. I have to take a full two weeks off all activity and wear a walking boot.

I can start walking around my house without the boot on next week to see how things go, and I can begin introducing nonimpact cross-training if that goes well. I have another appointment with my doctor in four weeks to see if I can re-introduce running at that point.



Given that my half marathon training was going so well, I'm kind of annoyed. But my doctor thinks if I can keep up the cardio volume starting in a couple of weeks that I will still be able to do the race. I'm a little nervous about that since I had some pretty important long runs coming up, and I don't love the idea of trying to simulate those on an elliptical but I guess we'll see what happens.

Right now, my foot hurts too much to put any weight on it. Assuming it's in a better place next week, I'll start elliptical and other non-impact workouts, and we'll just go from there.

Thanks to those of you who commented yesterday about what could be going on with my foot. It seems a bit better today, though I did spend a decent amount of time rolling my foot over a tennis ball in case it is the start of plantar fasciitis again.

Week three was another pretty good week of training -- though I could have done without some of the brutally cold days.



More days in the 50s please.

I did make one switch to the training schedule last week to fit in my long run on a day when the weather was in the 50s and sunny, rather than doing it on Saturday when it was going to be like 33 and rainy.

I had planned on swapping my cross-training day to Saturday instead because doing a spin workout indoors didn't seem like a terrible idea when the weather was crap. But I ended up sleeping in and going to brunch instead. Oops. I don't feel that badly about it, one extra rest day isn't going to kill me.

Anyway, here's a look at my workouts for the rest of the week.

Monday: 3.5 miles, 33:30, 9:34 per mile

The high temperature on this day was 29 degrees and it was kind of windy on this run, so maybe running along the water wasn't my idea ever. My ears were cold, but at least the cold air didn't burn my lungs too badly.

Tuesday: 2 miles, 19:11, 9:34 per mile

I was dragging after work on Tuesday and my motivation to do this run was pretty nonexistent when I left the office. For half the walk home, I was convincing myself why it wouldn't be all that awful to skip this run, but then I must have picked up a second wind or some endorphins kicked in on the walk because by the time I got home, it seemed silly to skip a super short two mile run.

Wednesday: 3.5 miles, 33:10, 9:29 per mile

Another glorious day where the temperature was in the high 50s, and I overheated in just a long sleeve shirt and capris. Why can't winter weather in DC just never get below the 40s? I think I'd be able to cope with that.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 5 miles, 47:35, 9:31 per mile

It was gorgeous out again on Friday, which is why I decided to do my long run this day. It was sunny with a bit of wind, and I will say when I was running over the bridge, the wind got to be a bit much, but otherwise, things on this run felt mostly good. My left hip/IT band tightened a bit, but nothing too bad. I've been trying to be really good about remembering to stretch well after runs, but I still might see if I can squeeze in a massage appointment sometime in the next several weeks.

Saturday: Skipped cross-training, extra rest day

Sunday: Rest

Well my average paces on all my runs were pretty ridiculously consistent. I've been trying to find a pace that is comfortable for me, that lets me build up my mileage without leaving me too gassed, and I guess somewhere right around 9:30 has been that sweet spot.