Pounding Pavement

I'm a bit nervous about my shoes. When I first started running, I was told by someone who clearly knew nothing that I had a neutral stride and could wear whatever I wanted. Three sprained ankles later, I learned I am an extreme supinator, running almost exclusviely on the outsides of my feet. After much discussion with a footwear specialist, I settled on a pair of Brooks Lady Dyad and never felt better. Oh, and some custom orthotics.

After my last marathon, I ended up with severe IT band strain. During therapy, I was told as a supinator, I have very high arches and need a cushioned shoe. Both my ortho doc and my podiatrist ADAMANTLY insisted that I need a motion control shoe. I elected to take the advice of the physicians and ended up with a pair of Nike Ariels. Nice shoes, just fine.

No problem until about 2 months ago when BAM! Another flippin' ankle sprain!! I can't blame the shoes, I'm sure, but I can certainly question them under hot lights. So now as I ramp back up to marathon distance wearing an ankle brace, I notice that my feet hurt more than usual after pounding the pavement for a few mile. It goes without saying that your feet hurt after running 17 miles, but this seems to be unusual. I'm wondering if this is related to the fact that my motion control shoes don't have the same cushion that my beloved Lady Dyads have.

With a bit of skepticism, I'm going to lace up my Brooks' for the 20-miler this weekend. With the ankle brace keeping my stable, I'm curious to find out if the cushioning will help ease the pain. But as I said, I'm nervous. There are few things as disheartening as an injury this late in the training season.

The Great Snowbowl Run

How crazy do you have to be to run 17 miles in the middle of winter? If you're not crazy enough to do it in 7 degree weather on snow packed/icy streets which are so slick and full of ruts that you have to literally watch every step - and to do it on a 1 mile street (i.e. back and forth for 17 laps), you're not crazy enough. Throw in an ankle brace for the sprain you've been nursing for the past too months and you've got to be downright looney. And I am proud to say I am just that crazy. Got the screaming hamstrings and blisters to prove it.

When you're training for a marathon, it's the TRAINING part that totally sucks. Some days I think "Once I hit the 26 mile mark, I'm never tapering again." Some days I think once I get there, I'll just stay there. A marathon each month with 3 ten-mile runs in between. That is not crazy, my friends, that is just efficient. As long as you treat each marathon as a training run, no problem. At least that's what I tell myself on days like Saturday, 9 miles into my 17 mile Snowbowl Run with 20 of my craziest running friends.

But here is how it inevitably plays out.... I plan a slow marathon as a training run, I realize I'm making good time and see if I can PR. Whether I actually do PR or not is irrelevant because by the time I'm done, I'm good and sore. Meaning the SECOND marathon, the one I was actually HOPING to run well, I have to take it easy and make it a slow recovery run. And then I'm even more sore and need to take some serious time off before starting all over.

It's a vicious cycle, but I love it. I do. I love it. Even in the tundra.