Training Log Archive: Wyatt

Very light burn at 16 minutes. Also, wore O' shoes for ~ 2 hours of walking around in house. In brace for rest of day and outside.

Still limping while in O' shoes, but due to habit/caution - there is no pain on stepping forward, just a little lingering 'shot-ache' pain.

Feet fine all night. Shot-ache (pressure sensitive) still there this morning, but not quite as bad. Spent ~2 hours in O-shoes and feet felt decent. Only shot-ache while walking.

I plan to do some more foot work later. This AM foot work (in O' shoes) got to mild burn at ~8 mins rest then 3 mins later..., rested 45 minutes, then did 3 more mins and stopped to go out. Will finish later.

Due to illness, I expect my next aerobic work to be Monday at the earliest.

I just did a big Excel sheet of what's been going on physically for the last 6 weeks. See here. Over the past 4 weeks, the average amount of pain seems to be down, and there was an increase (over the last 2 weeks) of foot exercise.

Still not at zero pain/burning though so it's a little disconcerting. I'll probably have to wear the brace another two weeks or so and keep doing foot exercise. We'll see what the podiatrist says in about an hour...

Est. chance of being able to run in various races:
New est. on 3/28 (Old est. on 3/14 in parentheses)
0% (0%) USMA A 4/12-13
5% (30%) SVO A, Brown, 4/26-27

10% (60%) Short O', 5/3
5% (40%) Long O', 5/4

30% (70%) Billygoat, 5/18

40% (80%) Team Trials, 5/24-26

Saw podiatrist. Got another cortisone shot to help kill off even the mild intermittent burning/ache thing that is still going on.

Some Q&A:
Q1: How tight to wear brace?
A1: Snug. Some wiggling is okay.

Q2: Rules on minor pain/burning?
A2: Normally he likes it to go to zero and then work up from there. However, if I can slowly increase activity and keep it very light, that's okay too.

Q3: Physical Therapy? Ultrasound? Stim? Ice after?
A3: Advanages of PT over my current routine are probably not worth my time. I can put a local heat pad (hot water ziploc) on it after light exercise to emulate ultrasound. Ice could be used occasionally, but it shouldn't be used daily.

Q4: What are the next steps?
A4: Continue water exercise, gym & foot work routine. _New:_ Add ~1 hour a day around house in shoes (not barefoot.) I'll wash a pair of O' shoes and try to use those...

And for today, I'm sick so I'm not going to do my normal swim/water aerobics today. Just foot exercise (20-30 minutes) and the 1 hour in a normal shoe (say, after work so I walk a little more, but not too much, like, say, outside.)

Now, 2-4 hours after the cortisone shot, my foot is totally fine while sitting, but has got a moderate ache/soreness in the normal outside bottom center of the R-foot. A little more spread out than normal. Hopefully this is just light tissue anger at being needled and it'll get better in a day or two...

Foot has pressure-only ache ever since ~ 2hr. after shot. I'll call that shot-ache.

At one point I wore O shoes for ~ 1hour, and the shot ache was definitely better.

I did foot work during O shoe hour. ~15 minutes felt light burn. Then stopped. Then did it on and off until ~24 minutes when burn lasted a whole minute or 5 after I stopped.

Later in evening I walked around a mall and shot-ache was there, but actually got a little better.

Also R-side has felt a little light pressure ache today.

R-Foot was pretty good this morning (relatively). L-foot had a few twinges in the same area. Maybe I should wear shoes indoors again if it twinges more...

I did the last 15 minutes of foot work in one batch and right after I stopped my foot was burning lightly, after feeling nothing during the exercise. Very tendonitis-like and not reassuring. I put ice on it for two minutes and stretched a little. Still was a burning.

I wasn't wearing the cast/brace in the house for the last two days - maybe that's a problem (for both feet...?). So I put it back on for the evening hours. I can make my L-foot tweak a little if I try to roll it out while sitting. Hopefully that'll get better overnight and not become a problem.

By the way, walking around the house barefoot, I still limp massively, and am warned by light pain if I try to roll forward at all on my right foot. The lower leg gets to about vertical (knee above ankle) and must stop there or it'll complain as I roll forward.

I've got a doc. appt. tomorrow and we'll see. What measurable progress has there been in 4 weeks? Off the top of my head:
1) Less pain to poking pressure.
2) Less frequent sharp pains in R-foot (I can't remember the last one...)
3) Apparently the easy foot work is getting less painful and goes longer without burning (although I could just be less paranoid about overdoing it, and like a tendonitis, if I work through the first minute of burning, it warms up and is fine for exercise, but then flares up a bit later...

I'll print this whole diary for, say, 6 weeks tomorrow and read it to see if I have any other comments. Overall I think my optimistic schedule from yesterday is definitely on the optimistic side, and it's getting a lot more likley that I miss the entire Spring season...

I think I'm getting sick, but I didn't notice while working out. If it's like the family's cold of last week though I may be out of commission by Friday... Go Vit. C.

Also it's getting rainy. My foot was a little extra sore yesterday, and it hasn't been super today. Hopefully it's just the rain.

Actually this afternoon (after the water exercise) my foot has been pretty good. I've started wearing the brace only outside. Partly because I just vacuumed and don't want to start tracking yet more mud inside the house, but partly because, as long as I remember to limp around the house, my foot seems less sore out of the brace than in it.

4 minutes in pool after exercise trying to simulate walking. Foot was mild/moderately sore for part of the 2nd minute, but I eased up a bit and it got better.

Then I did 8 minutes more while I sat at my desk it's not perfect. A little light pain now an then that fades completely away and comes back on and off.

Then 18 minutes later in the evening. It was more or less fine during that.

While my foot seems to be improving a little on the toe/heel raises, it's variable, I should re-read more of this log to see if it's really improving or if I'm just limping/avoiding the pain better.

An optimistic healing plan: while I was aiming for this Friday to walk normally I don't think I'm there yet...

3/28: Remove cast, try to walk again without cast, continue foot exercises and water aerobics.

Next Goal: Walking with no pain, hopefully 4/11.

Miss West Point A

Walking with no limp at all, with no pain, hopefully 4/21.

Wait for two weeks at that level, while still doing water running and foot exercises for strength.

Then at ~5/5 (if on schedule) start running just a little... At that point I'll miss SVO and the Long/Short champs. Bummer. If it does heal faster than it seems to be doing, I may be able to do the Short champs...

By 5/19 I could do 30 minutes of O'? And then I'll attack the BillyGoat, with almost no on foot training for 6 months. Oh that'll be good. Ack.

What can I do to speed this up, without reinjury? Well one idea I had was how I healed from an earlier foot injury.

After months of no running or O' due to a toe injury, I walked an O' event, in O' shoes, and it felt so good that I jogged a few steps here and there, and was pretty much fine even so. I think the O' shoes were tight enough that it held my foot shape better than a running shoe. Perhaps since this is a foot injury/structure problem, a tight O' shoe would help?

So, perhaps this Sunday, while Angelica runs Green, I'll wear O' shoes while waiting around with AJ & Oriana. I'll bring the big brace too just in case. And then next weekend, at French Creek, I may do the same, or walk a control depending on how I feel… and then, just maybe, I’ll walk White on one of the days of USMA A-event? If I progress that well, the Short O’ champs is possible…

Foot a little achy while walking in cast today. Fine for the first 3 minutes of walking before putting on cast, but the first step _in the cast_ was a little sore. Perhaps the cast isn't good any more? Although I'm no doubt stepping more agressively while in the cast.

Also, it's fine now while sitting. And fine during foot work. I plan to take AJ swimming (very light exercise for me) and then hit the gym, both later today...

Foot very lightly burning on and off all morning. Only noticable if I think about it. I wonder how much of that is just because this brace is so hot. I missed water aerobics but I plan to swim and water run this afternoon.

Toe/Heel raises on R-foot (L only ~15 minutes). Did 6 minutes before swim, 8 after swim, 17 later in evening. No pain at all during exercises.

Foot only lightly sore occasionally while walking around.