Exercise

My left foot (not the movie)

Today I had my left foot examined by a certified pedorthist. I got an official report and am heading back on January 21 to get an orthotic device that I will use in my walking-around shoes and running shoes. This is basically a fancy insole specifically molded to the shape of my foot and designed to minimize pain in the gimpy parts of my foot.

Here are the highlights (?) of my assessment:

Postural Observations
Bilateral: Medium MLA, Hindfoot Valgus
Balance weak when single leg stance bilaterally

[Insert joke about Hindfoot Valgus being my new punk band name here]

The second line about balance is a polite way of saying I really suck at standing on one leg. My sense of balance is not weak, it’s silly and nearly non-existent. I could be on a tightrope a meter wide and still find a way to fall off. I don’t know why this is, but it’s been this way as long as I can remember.

Gait Assessment
Bilateral: Time Of Heel Lift Early
Mtt arch collapse / splay

The first line was interesting to me. When I first gave serious thought to running back in 2009 my reading on the subject left me with the impression that heel injuries were common and and that a good stance would greatly reduce or eliminate the chance of injury. And in over 3,000 km of running I have never hurt my heel. Unfortunately this may have lead to me indirectly causing other problems. When I am striding–walking or running–I lift off my heel early, which tends to result in landing on the front of my foot harder than I might otherwise. You can probably guess which part of my left foot hurts.

Significant Clinical Observations:
Mr. James [I always feel weird when people call me Mr. James, partly because it makes me think of my dad and partly because it sounds like I’m being addressed a a teacher] presents with pain under left metatarsal heads. He has medium arch height, limited ankle dorsiflexion, dropped metatarsal heads with callousing bilaterally [interpretation: I have ugly feet. I was also asked if I had some sort of fungal infection because my toenail are like ten little mini horror shows]. He has limited ankle dorsiflexion leading to early heel rise and more pressure at forefoot during gait. Orthotics recommended to aid in shock absorption and take pressure off metatarsal heads. Footwear with good cushioning and forefoot rocker recommended as well as home footwear. Calf stretches regularly strongly recommended in treatment plan as well [this was a big thing; basically I’m as flexible as a board and need to change that].

I went home with a pair of sandals designed to cushion the proper parts of my feet. I’m to wear them around home, which is something that makes me feel old man-ish but if they work, it beats not old man-ish with an aching foot. I was also persuaded to get a new pair of running shoes with the aforementioned forefoot rocker, specifically the Hoka Speedgoat trail runners. Yes, the name is absurd. Will I get the urge to chew on tin cans as I run? Perhaps. It features “Balanced Meta-Rocker Geometry” and this particular feature is startlingly noticeable when you walk around in the shoes. I’m curious to see how they feel when running. They look like this:

Hoka Speedgoat

The testing/assessment took about an hour and consisted of me walking/running on a treadmill and having my feet poked, prodded and stretched to see where it hurt, as well as the standing-on-one-leg thing. Fortunately the balancing part was not critical. The biggest takeaway as far as what I can do, apart from getting the orthotic, is to stretch multiple times every day and especially before running. Ironically, I used to stretch before running but after hurting an Achilles tendon back in 2012 I became concerned (paranoid?) that the stretching was increasing the chance of me injuring myself by overdoing it. The pedorthist (a nice woman named Lynne) told me this would be pretty much impossible to do without engaging in a level of excessive stretching idiocy that a rational human would not be capable of. This mostly reassured me.

I may try the goat shoes as soon as tomorrow.

To paraphrase the first Star Trek movie, The Foot Adventure is Just Beginning…

Run 408: The unexpected run with bonus Watch and nippy dog

UPDATE, August 21, 2022: Updated tags for better searching and to note this was the first run using an Apple Watch (Series 0).

Run 408
Average pace: 5:42/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 5.0 km
Time: 28:35
Weather: Overcast
Temp: 7ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 172
Stride: n/a
Weight: 165.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 3320
Device used: Apple Watch (debut, Series 0) and iPhone 6

Here it is a mere four and a half months later and I’ve completed my next run, which I was totally not expecting.

Dedicated spambots scraping this blog for running articles may recall that my last run was on August 3rd, the first official day of my vacation. The run ended with my right hip (not actually my hip, as it later turned out) being hurt sufficiently that I knew I would be out for the rest of the summer or, as it turned out, almost the rest of the entire year.

Once I had sufficiently mended we were past summer and into fall and the days grew short and it was difficult to run after work. Running on the weekend also proved difficult because I just plain lost my mojo.

Today I had a Clif Bar for lunch (usual as I quest toward my target weight of 150) but a short while later I caved and had an apple strudel. It was loaded not only with sugar but also guilt. I had made a vow to stop snacking, and this was a clear violation. I soaked in the tub and contemplated how this, along with a planned pasta dinner, would contribute to The Fattening. I felt bad.

I decided to run.

I got changed and because this wouldn’t be an “official” run, I chose to not wear the TomTom watch. Instead I thought I’d give my fancy new Apple Watch and iPhone a workout (ho ho), using the Watch’s Activity app.

Setup was simple. I chose Outdoor Run, it advised me as this was my first run that I should run for at least 20 minutes to let the watch suss out my average pace. I planned 5K so this would not be an issue as I have not recently had bionic legs surgically attached.

I decided to walk the length of the Brunette River trail first, then start the run at the opposite end. This would get me heading in the right direction on the home stretch. I wore my usual gear, though the t-shirt was swapped for the long-sleeved version. This was not an unwise choice as it was 7ºC, not exactly tanning weather.

Upon arrival at the river trail I noted the bear sign was still up. It’s December 20th, I’m pretty sure the bears have gone south or started hibernating or whatever it is they do in the winter.

Using the watch, I selected my running music (from 1987, see previous post), chose the Outdoor Run activity and set the distance at 5 km. I tapped the Start button and three seconds later I began my first run in a good long time.

I kept the pace deliberate and actually had no trouble completing the full 5 km. A stitch threatened early on but never fully materialized and the only discomfort I felt was the usual “this is what it feels like to use certain muscles again after not using them for 18 weeks.” The left foot started to hurt but stayed tolerable. I stuffed toilet paper into the shoe to help provide extra cushioning but toilet paper squashes easily, something I forgot since I’m not in the habit of squashing it.

My pace seemed about right, given the layoff: 5:42/km. I broke the five-minute mark on the first km, slowed over the next three and picked up on the final. Again, this is all more or less normal. The BPM came in at 172, much higher than the 160 of my last run back in August. I’m not sure if this is accurate and thus worrisome, or inaccurate and no big deal.

While everything worked well enough with the Activity app, it is too self-contained and lacks some stats to really prove useful in the long term. I may try the Strava app on my next practice run, as it’s supposed to be spiffy.

Three other things of note on the run:

  • There were a lot of fishers out there and more people in general than I expected
  • As I looped back to the entrance of the trail, a Metro Vancouver worker was removing the bear sign, as if he had read my mind; for reasons unknown (conspiring with bears?) the other sign at the western end of the trail was left up
  • Some dope with a dog let his dog off-leash and while he was bent over tying his shoe on the other side of the trail, the dog came running after me, nipping and barking at my heels. It wasn’t scary so much as annoying. I shot the guy a dirty look as he called Cujo back, then observed, with no surprise, as they headed off, the dog was still unleashed. I pondered what it would take to get him to decide it was a good idea to put the leash back on (he had a leash with him). I decided nothing would because he was a stupid, selfish jerkface.

I now wait to see how my body feels tomorrow (I’m thinking a little sore but not bad). I could potentially run again in three days, but may wait until next weekend. The important thing is I ran, I survived, I worked off that strudel, and I’m curious to go out and do it again.

A walk with ducks, fresh gravel and wooden stickmen

Today Jeff and I went for a walk around Burnaby Lake, the first time I’ve been there in over two months and since The Big Blow of 2015. It was cooler than August but not really wetter, if you don’t count the lush athletic fields being giant sponges of water.

I wore my newish Peregrine 5 runners to give them another testing and they clearly do not get along with my weird left foot, as said foot started hurting almost right away. This makes me sad because I hate shopping for shoes. The pain was more annoying than anything, at least.

As we approached Hume Park, Jeff pulled out his iPhone and began setting about finding a nearby geocache, which are basically little goodies stashed away outdoors and contain sheets you can use to record that you have found the cache. The first one Jeff found was the weirdest, a wooden stickman that looked like a prop from The Blair Witch Project. Here I am holding it with my best goofy face on:

wooden stickman
Demonstrating the proper way to hold a stickman made of wood

Jeff ended up finding five others but none came close to the clever and odd design of the stickman. They were mostly water-logged sheets of paper rolled up inside leaky pill bottles.

We looked for a few caches along the Brunette River but didn’t have much luck there. We did notice the river was replete with salmon returning to the lake to spawn and die, as is their tragic lot on life. Many were quite big. Others were big and dead. And stinky. We didn’t linger.

Less stinky were a bunch of ducks near another geocache at the lake. I have never before observed a group of ducks all lined up on a tree branch before. I have now:

ducks in a row
Ducks in a row

We also watched as a gaggle of geese nearly flew into someone’s model airplane buzzing over the athletic field and enjoyed the newly resurfaced stretch of trail starting near Silver Creek. This has always been my least favorite part of the lake trail for runs, as it is very uneven and has steep sides that all but whisper, “C’mere and twist your ankle!” No more! It is now a smooth pedestrian superhighway. I expect erosion will take care of this in time but for now it’s a nice improvement. It also looks conspicuously unnatural.

delicious fresh gravel
Fresh gravel, perfect for walking on. NO BIKES.

Alas, by the time we reached the halfway point of our journey ’round the lake we both had sore feet and elected to take the SkyTrain back from the Sperling/Burnaby Lake station. We still covered about 11 km, though, so not too shabby for my first real walk in months.

Next time I’ll don better footwear or use some kind of magical orthopedic device that will make my left foot feel happy and non-hurting. I hate that foot.

A haiku to half a summer of running

Half a summer of running is better than none.

I ran in the heat
Until my leg, it went “Ow!”
Walking, the new black

Okay, that’s pretty terrible, but in my defense I’ve got some kind of bug or virus or whatever it is I can walk a half dozen blocks, go down a flight of stairs, then feel exhausted and ready for a nap by the time I climb back up them (which describes my after-dinner walk tonight. I wanted to see how much of the tree destruction had been cleared. The giant tree on Sherbrooke had been chainsawed and piled on the side of the road but the smaller tree on Fader was still toppled over, albeit now with caution tape around it. It’s also not resting on the power lines. I wanted to check out if any clearing had been done down on the Brunette River trail but after climbing back up the stairs in Lower Hume Park–the trees at the bottom were still blocking the way–I was feeling more like exploring the comfort of being tucked under the sheets than the great outdoors.)

As to the running, the right leg is legitimately starting to feel better. I’m cautiously hopeful that with some physio and a few weeks of stretching exercises I may be ready to run again before the end of September. By then, of course, the light will be fading quickly after dinner and I’ll have little time to get runs in, but I’ll figure something out. At least it won’t be Africa hot.

Limping back to form

A check-up with the doctor today resulted in a few recommendations to get me back to running again. First, it was confirmed that I pulled a muscle, likely either a hamstring or gluteus maximus, possibly the most fun-sounding muscle in the human body, but one you don’t really want to injure because it is big and kind of important for walking and such. My doctor recommended a couple of things. The first was a few visits to a physiotherapist to get the lowdown on how to gently and lovingly work the muscle(s) back into shape. The second was to generally do more stretching to become more limber, as he described my legs as “tight” and in this case tight does not mean cool, hip (ho ho) or the equivalent, it means my legs can’t bend much before stopping like rusted slabs of steel. The improved flexibility should reduce the chances of the same injury happening again.

Also when I showed him the stats from one of my runs this summer, he looked at the heart rate (155 BPM) and said while it wasn’t bad per se, it would be wise to not run any faster as I’m in the upper level of safety for heart rate. Basically I am doing long distance runs at a sprinting pace (something the TomTom tools also confirmed), which is fine if I can handle it but maybe I should be less macho about the whole thing.

I also need some kind of echo test to check out a “low” murmur in my heart to get a better idea of what may be wrong (leaky valve, etc.). It’s not a huge concern right at the moment but the doc thinks it’s best to determine what is up now before I go on to emulate famous runner and heart attack victim Jim Fixx. I concur.

Finally, there is no way to remain convincingly nonchalant when having a medical practitioner stick a finger up your butt.

Hip hip not hooray

Me, August 3rd:

I’ll see if I bounce back from this quickly or if it turns into some yucky long term situation.

Eleven days later and I can now confirm: yucky long term situation.

I knew with the way the hip felt after the last run that I would miss at least the next run, maybe two. I was hoping that I’d lose no more than that, meaning I’d be running again the following Monday, which was five days ago. While the hip did feel a little better on Monday and Tuesday and I did some walks at near my usual pace I seemed to relapse and yesterday (Thursday) a 4.5 km walk was almost kind of painful. I have no idea if the hip injury is muscle, bone or a gremlin trying to pull everything apart like the one in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” but I have a doctor appointment coming up so may have a better idea then.

That appointment isn’t until the 24th, however. In the meantime I’m taking it day by day and seeing how the hip feels. I’ve played out the old man/hip thing now, I’m ready to start running again. I am open to having bionic legs attached.

Run 407: The old man and the hip

Run 407
Average pace: 5:43/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 10.02 km
Time: 57:20
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23-27ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 160
Stride: 175 strides/min
Weight: 152.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 3315
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

The good news is despite sleeping in a little, my first holiday run actually happened in the morning and temperatures remained comfortable throughout.

The bad news was the thing of evil known as my right hip. Never known for acts of great villainy before, it made up for it today, doing its best to topple me.

Yesterday I walked my usual run router and noticed that the right hip was feeling a little sore. I believe this stemmed from sleeping funny and twisting my leg in a way that is sub-optimal, similar to how some people will wake with sore backs. This happened last year then went away. It returned this year and while I have noticed it on runs it’s never really interfered, it’s more something I feel.

Yesterday’s walk was a warm-up, though, because today the hip made its presence known so strongly it completely knocked me off my usual pace. My left foot also started hurting between the 2-3K mark, though it leveled off quickly and I don’t feel it was a factor.

By around 9K the hip mysteriously started to feel much better, so much so that I put on the afterburners to get a good finish in. Halfway through this (with 300-400 m left) the hip did a full reversal and felt like it was on fire or going to explode or something. I had a few moments where I wondered if I would even finish the run. I did and also managed a slow walk home.

I’m not sure why the hip has suddenly gone haywire, unless I’m continuing to sleep wrong. I would correct this if I could stay awake while I sleep but you see the problem there.

I’ll see if I bounce back from this quickly or if it turns into some yucky long term situation.

Other than Hell Hip, the trail was rather crowded today with walkers and joggers out enjoying the nice weather of BC Day. Bonus: no cyclists!

Run 406: Beavers in Africa

Run 406
Average pace: 5:23/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 8.02 km
Time: 43:13
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 30-26ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 156
Stride: 178 strides/min
Weight: 153.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 3305
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

Tonight’s run was marred by a series of mildly unpleasant things, ranging from yet more hot temperatures (it was 30ºC when I started out) to a stitch in my lower right side (possibly caused by my guts boiling from the insane heat) to a tickle in my throat that was probably an ingested bug that led to a lot of coughing, watering eyes and general horribleness.

Despite all this, my pace of 5:23/km, while much slower than my last 8K, was actually fairly decent for the weather.

But the best part of all came a little less than a kilometer in when, on the Brunette River trail, I saw a beaver sitting on the path near the fence to my left. It was glistening and shiny from having just climbed out of the river and was pondering its next move, seemingly oblivious to my presence. I found this odd because I imagine beavers don’t encounter a lot of joggers. After I passed by I looked back and the beaver was ambling across to the other side of the trail, heading toward the new stream created a few years back, no doubt intent on a little re-engineering of the local ecosystem. I felt a little bad for the beaver having to waddle around in the oppressive heat wearing a fur coat. On the plus side it can jump into the river to cool off without fear of drowning, unlike me.

The Peregrine 5s held up much better this time, with both shoes remaining tied. Plus they are blue and snazzy-looking:

Peregrine 5

The left foot was better-behaved, as well, only getting slightly sore by the time I was waiting at the station for the SkyTrain.

All in all, despite the myriad issues, this run was not as bad as it could have been. Thanks for brightening my run, beaver! Unless you were an omen of a bad run, then screw you, you tree-destroying little monster!

Run 405: A Peregrine comes untied

Run 405
Average pace: 5:25/km
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 10.01 km
Time: 54:21
Weather: Overcast, a little sun
Temp: 18-20ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 155
Stride: 180 strides/min
Weight: 155 pounds
Total distance to date: 3297
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

Today’s run promised to be exciting an ominous. The excitement would be from wearing new shoes, a shiny blue pair of Saucony Peregrine 5s. These are non-minimalist trail runners, though they have a fairly tiny drop of 4 mm (for non-runners this refers to the height difference between the heel and toes; minimalist shoes have a completely flat or 0 mm drop). The ominous part came from the weather forecast warning of possible downpours in the afternoon with pea-sized hail (!) being possible. I’ve run in hail before and am not a fan.

Luckily, despite some morning showers the worst that happened was a lot of cloud cover, with the sun poking through once in awhile. The temperature stayed low, ranging from 18-20ºC so it was pleasantly comfortable.

The new shoes presented two problems, one right away and the other about 3 km into the run. The first was the left foot started to hurt (not much, more just a “can feel it” sort of thing) as soon as I headed out. This evolved into it actually hurting proper around 5 km into the run itself. The second was the left shoelace (which I retied at home several times before heading out) coming untied less than 3 km in, a major fail and huge pet peeve of mine. Fortunately it remained tied for the rest of the run and the other shoe never came undone.

The laces are not braided so I either need to pay more attention when tying them before heading out or consider swapping in some braided laces or perhaps switch to some crazy space age technology to keep them from coming untied, like Krazy Glue.

The good news for the left foot being sore, such as it was, is that it didn’t keep getting worse, peaking almost immediately, and my overall pace was a virtual tie with my last 10K run (also when the weather was not that summer-like, oddly). My previous time of 54:19 minutes was exceeded by a mere two seconds today at 54:21 and the pace managed to get rounded up to 5:25/km, but realistically was unchanged from the earlier 10K’s 5:24/km.

Stamina-wise there were no issues, though the sore foot kept me from pushing. I suspect my time would have been better if my foot had been happier. It will be interesting to see if the new shoes break in or just break my foot. Outside of my left foot they otherwise felt comfortable and had solid traction, handy for dodging the occasional puddle from the morning shower.

I’m officially reserving judgment for now.

I am pleased that despite the foot I still equaled my previous effort, though. Excelsior!

Run 404: No errors here

Run 404
Average pace: 5:13/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Distance: 7.02 km
Time: 36:38
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 23ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Stride: 180 strides/min
Weight: 153.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 3286
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

Tonight’s run was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday’s, with the temperature being slightly warmer (23 vs. 21ºC), the distance slightly shorter (7K vs. 8K) and the direction slightly opposite (counter-clockwise vs. clockwise).

Because of the previously mentioned slightly tender shins I originally planned to ease up a bit for this run but when I spied another runner ahead of me as I came off the Piper Mill trail I decided to keep pace with him (if I could) and did just that for roughly the last two km or so. I think I actually closed the gap a little, woo.

As with Tuesday’s run I got a nice bell curve going, with the slowest part of the run in the middle and then picking up speed again in the second half. In fact I came the closest yet to dipping below 5:00/km in the last km, coming in at 5:03. Hopefully my shins will forgive me.

Run 403: Cooler, faster, better

Run 403
Average pace: 5:14/km
Location: Brunette River trail and Burnaby Lake (CW)
Distance: 8.03 km
Time: 42:03
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 21ºC
Wind: light
BPM: 155
Stride: 180 strides/min
Weight: 153.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 3278
Device used: TomTom Runner Cardio

I upped the distance slightly for a weeknight run, going from 7K to 8K and thanks to a nice, not-fires-of-hell temperature of 21ºC I returned to the pace of my previous few runs prior to Sunday, with an overall pace of 5:14/km.

The only downside as such was a bit of renewed tenderness in my shins, likely due to a combination of longer runs and the relative zippiness of late. It’s fairly mild as these things go so I’m not overly concerned. Other than that there were no issues and in fact I had enough energy to pick up the pace for the last few km.