I’m not going to candy-coat the truth (though I’ve candy-coated many baked goods, lately): running consistently during the holiday season is hard. Running consistently during the holiday season with an injury is doubly so. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that for the past couple of weeks I’ve been dealing with a sore Achilles tendon. Well, during Week 10 the pain exploded around into the side of my ankle, specifically the peroneal tendon, and I was forced to take a lot more rest days and easy runs than I would’ve liked. For those of you who don’t know what the peroneal tendons are (like me, a couple of weeks ago), they’re two bands of tissue that run behind the outer ankle bone. One of these tendons attaches to the to the outer part of the midfoot (that’s the one I’m feeling pain and stiffness in right now); the other runs beneath the foot and attaches near the inside of the arch. These tendons act together to roll the foot outwards (eversion), assist the calf muscles in flexing the foot, and stabilize the ankle during weight-bearing activities like walking and running. Peroneal tendon injuries aren’t very common, only accounting for 0.6% of all running injuries, so I guess I’ve hit the rare-injury jackpot. Severity can range from just inflammation (tendontitis), to outright tears in one or both tendons, and generally cause pain along the outside of the foot and lower leg. Apparently, peroneal tendonitis can be caused by overuse, having high arches, running at high speeds, performing high intensity interval workouts, and having weak or stiff calf muscles. While I don’t have high arches, I have been running a lot lately, and I’ve gotten significantly faster in the past year than I’ve ever been before. Add that to the uneven, slippery surfaces I’ve been navigating lately, and I guess I was ripe for an injury. Now I’ve been resting, decreasing my mileage and speed, trying to rehab my ankle by stretching, foam rolling (thank you, Caitlin Johnston for the demo a few weeks ago!), performing ankle eversion exercises with an exercise band, and strengthening my calves with calf raises and lowers, weighted Farmer’s Walks, and tracing the alphabet in the air with my foot (a great ankle-loosening exercise even when you’re not injured). When I first started feeling pain, I could barely run 5k without feeling burning and stiffness on the outside of my ankle and foot, but today I ran 13k and I'm feeling fine. I’m still behind in my training, but I think I’m farther along than if I’d done what I used to in my twenties: just gutted it out, becoming further injured in the process. The other variable in this whole mess has been Christmas. Between parties and shopping and baking, getting out for regular runs has been hard, especially while injured. But several of us from the various Running Room stores in the Edmonton area got together to go running on Candy Cane Lane this past Wednesday, and the low mileage and beautiful holiday displays were just what I needed to get my mind off my injury, making me realize how lucky I am to be relatively able-bodied and able to run at all. So Happy Holidays to you all! See you again in the New Year! (And maybe join me on New Year’s Day for the Resolution Run 5k). Week 10 (Dec 8-Dec 14) Training: Training Schedule: Dec 8 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 12 Dec 13 Dec 14 14K LSD OFF 4 Tempo 6 Hills 6 Steady OFF 4 Steady What I ran: 11K LSD 5 OFF 6 Hills OFF OFF OFF Week 11 (Dec 15-Dec 21) Training: Training Schedule: Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19 Dec 20 Dec 21 16K LSD OFF 5 Tempo 7 Hills 7 Steady OFF 5 Steady What I ran: OFF 5 OFF 5 Slow 5 Slow OFF OFF
4 Comments
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AuthorKathy Istace runs and races in one of the coldest cities on earth. Archives
December 2020
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