The foot is mending. Wearing my running shoes at all times as suggested by Cassie seems to be helping. I wore them to work on Thursday and Friday, taking the business casual policy to the extreme.

My orthopedist canceled Friday's appointment because of an emergency and can't get me in until my original appointment date of next Thursday. I'm not sure there will be much to look at so I may bag it.

Monday will be two full weeks since my last run and depending on how the foot feels tomorrow I may try an easy run Monday. I'm hopeful that the elliptical trainer and the Concept2 are maintaining my conditioning but I'm overdue for a long run.

Weekly Mileage (Elliptical Trainer): 29.4
Long Run: N/A
Meters Rowed: 12,000

Shoe changes should not be taken lightly.

About a month ago I smugly blogged about switching from my Saucony Triumphs to Asics Gel Nimbus. Shortly after the shoe switch I developed a shin splint in my left leg and my Achilles tendons would be stiff and sore upon waking in the morning. I struggled on, wearing the Asics in the Freescale Half Marathon but the shin splint pain never completely subsided and when it would flare up during a run I developed a really sloppy "slap" with my left foot—the tendon on the front of the leg being so fatigued that it couldn't lift my toes to prepare for the next foot strike. So I switched back to my Triumphs, they still had some miles left in them and I was hoping it would give my shin splint some relief. It did—no shin splint and the Achilles felt a bit better in the morning. My long run of eighteen miles went well in the Triumphs and I was preparing on begging for forgiveness to the Saucony gods.

But then a few days later the heel-foot pain came on, self diagnosed as plantar fasciitis (going to an orthopedist tomorrow). It's been so painful at times that I had to hobble around, walking on the ball of my left foot. It's slowly starting to get better but it flares up at times and it's not possible to run on it. The elliptical trainer doesn't seem to bother it too much so I've been using that along with the Concept2 (still searching for a heated pool with a deep-end to use the Aquajogger). But even without running I can feel the heel pain when walking around in the Triumphs which surprised me given the cushioning.

I had resigned myself to using the Asics as an expensive pair of house shoes. Technically I could probably return them for a different pair but they've got some miles on them and I'm not that bold. Today I put the Asics on before jumping on the Concept2 and wow! the heel pain was almost completely relieved. It's as if the left Asics shoe is a pain-free zone. I suppose it's that the Asics have better arch support than the Triumphs and definitely better than my street shoes. I'm wearing them right now purely for the pain relief they provide and my foot almost feels good enough to run on it (and I realize I'd pay for it later).

So moving to the Asics brought on a shin splint and probably set me up for plantar fasciitis. But now that I have it the Triumphs don't offer enough arch support to keep the pain away. To paraphrase Philip Nolan, "Damn the Asics! I wish I may never hear of the Asics again!"

"Be Your Own Hero" was a slogan I once saw on a t-shirt with the Brooks or Asics logo (I don't recall which) that captured one of the reasons why I run. I can look back on the weekend's run replaying it in my head as I struggled to get that last mile in under eight minutes or how I managed to pass the skinny guy just as we crossed my imaginary finish line (who didn't even know he was racing me). No need to ruminate about Lance Armstrong or Pete Sampras (when he was playing), there's this Patrick Nolan guy who's tearing up Memorial Park on the weekends.

I was reminded of this while reading From Couch Potato to Ironman. It's a journal of a woman as she prepares herself for an Ironman triathlon. She's not a professional athlete, isn't getting paid millions of dollars to do nothing but train, and has no sponsors or handlers. She's squeezing this in while she holds down a job just like us regular folks.

So when you're standing around the water cooler and someone starts talking up Tracy McGrady or Barry Bonds, chime in with your own story about how you beat the guy in the blue shorts on yesterday's run and then came home and cleaned the garage.

An interesting article in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine about the restaurant Chipotle. If you haven’t seen this burrito place near you, it’s just a matter of time. I’ve been there, it’s pretty good, but I prefer FreeB!rds. However, Chipotle is using pork (at some of the restaurants) from Niman Ranch, a producer of meat that is free of antibiotics and hormone-supplements. But what’s really interesting is that McDonald’s is a majority investor (one of the reasons I wasn't too keen on the place). But it looks like McDonald’s is giving Chipotle the necessary autonomy to be successful.

And since In-N-Out is still fresh in my mind, the article had some kinds words about my favorite burger chain (in sort of a back-handed way):

Just a few years ago, the lone hope for fast food was In-N-Out Burger, a small West Coast chain that has acted as a model of what fast food can be -- made of wholesome ingredients, freshly but quickly prepared. It was the anti-McDonald's, but it has remained a wee competitor, with just 189 locations, compared with the 13,700 McDonald's in America. Good fast food, it seemed, simply couldn't compete with the giants. And yet, In-N-Out won many fans, including Steve Ells, the C.E.O. of Chipotle.

Please, a chain of 189 restaurants is plenty, it’s part of the magic. It loses its appeal when they start showing up across the country in suburban strip malls in front of the Bed Bath and Beyond.

It's good to be home. Business travel is a terrible experience and I'm thankful that I don't have to do it too often. Once you're at your destination it might be bearable (depending on the city and hotel) but the whole airport/airplane environment is awful. I wouldn't even know where to begin if someone said I could do whatever I found necessary to fix it.

The foot might be a bit better but I still can't run on it. I did use an elliptical trainer on Thursday without any pain and used one again today. Today's workout was good—80-85% MHR for sixty minutes. My only mistake was wearing a cotton t-shirt, it was soaked by the time I finished.

So until my foot gets better (I can't get into the orthopedic doctor until March 10) I'm going to have to try and maintain my fitness on the elliptical, rowing machine, and Aquajogger provided I can find an open air pool around here. My community pool is where I used the belt before but it has a "bubble" on it during the winter and the air inside reeks of chlorine. I'm not sure I want to by huffing and puffing that air for an hour.

I first did deep water running when preparing for my first (and only) marathon in the fall of 2003. I had injured my ankle and the doctor said no running for several weeks unless it was in the pool. It was boring but you can get a good workout with it. Here's an article from Running Times discussing one person's experience with it and here's an article on the Aquajogger website discussing water running.

Three teeny miles this week and about two hours total on the elliptical. Ouch.

The foot is no better, which means it's actually quite bad. I'm near Scottscale Arizona at the Carefree Resort for two days of meetings and I can't partake in most of the extracurricular activities they have available for us. There is a hiking or mountain bike rides this afternoon that I'm skipping because I'm hobbling around with my lame foot. I may see what their gym has to offer.

My employer sent our entire group here so we could review where we are at the fiscal mid-year and to get us energized for the finish. Every year they bring in a motivational speaker and this year it was Todd Skinner who spoke about mountain climbing and his expedition to climb Trango Tower. The story, accompanied by a slideshow, was incredible. I'm not one who typically takes notes but his perspective was worth capturing.

In-N-Out was as good as I remember it. I got in last night around 9:00 p.m. and talked my roommate (yes, we have roommates, the only downside to this trip) into accompanying me for a late night feast. He's from California so he knew the burgers were good but didn't know if it would be worth the twenty minute drive. The simplicity of their menu is refreshing—hamburger or cheeseburger, French fries, shakes, soft drinks. The food is good, the service friendly, the restaurant clean—what McDonald's used to be thirty years ago.

I have a serious issue with my left foot (rent My Left Foot if you haven’t already seen it—inspiring). The pain is preventing me from walking normally and I’m not sure I could use an elliptical trainer right now. I aggravated the foot yesterday by using the Concept2 and I’m reluctant to do any exercise that puts weight on my foot.

What has me perplexed is why the foot started hurting Monday—48 hours after my long run. Yes, I ran Monday but it was an easy three miles and I felt nothing during that run. It was only later in the day (I still think my loafers have something to do with this) that my heel started to hurt. The pain was worse yesterday and really raging last night. If I wasn’t going out of town in a few hours I’d be trying to get into the orthopedist to make sure my diagnoses of plantar fasciitis is correct.

Back in January I upgraded to the latest version of dasBlog and when I did it broke the Mail-To feature. This is the ability to mail entries to dasBlog, using Outlook as my editor where I can compose offline and mail it in when connected. It’s now fixed in the latest dasBlog release and I’m going to be using it again starting with this entry. If you’re looking for a blogging back-end I highly recommend dasBlog.

It was too good to be true. I felt fine Sunday after my long run Saturday and I attributed this to the ice bath after the run, a post-run drink of Endurox, and an easy walk Saturday evening. Yesterday I went out for six easy miles but was while the spirit was willing, the legs were weak. I bagged it after three miles with quality, not quantity, being my rationale.

Yesterday afternoon I felt some pain on the bottom of my left heel. It felt like it was bruised, as if I had stepped on a rock or acorn in my bare feet. It progressively got worse throughout the day and I blamed the shoes I was wearing—loafers with a short leather heel. Because Wifey and I were up most of the night with a teething baby, I could feel the heel worsening and by this morning I knew I had developed something.

A quick search on Google (Do we ever want for any piece of information these days?) It looks like a case of plantar fasciitis. The bruised heel pain is the classic symptom and I'm a match for several of the contributing factors. I'm hopeful that it won't linger, I'll substitute running with rowing and the elliptical for a few days and treat with ibuprofen and bromelain.

The real drag is that I'm scheduled to go to Phoenix tomorrow and was looking forward to running at South Mountain Park. I'll console myself by visiting In-N-Out Burger (several times).

Like so many things, it's the anticipation and not the event. I did eighteen miles today and it went well—calf held up, stomach didn't bother me, didn't run out of gas, and the weather was decent. But getting this run done was bugging me all week. What if my calf strain forces me to quit? What if it's raining and I miss my mileage goal for the week? Is my throat getting sore? And then there's that lonely feeling immediately before the long run that you're going to be doing this for the next three hours.

But once you get started it all settles into place. You've got three hours of no phones, no emails, no external distractions to break your rhythm. It's not solitude because you're sharing the jogging trail at a popular park. And it's not solitude I need—I enjoy seeing the faces of other runners as we pass each other again and again. But it is aloneness and it gives you plenty of time to think—old friends I want to look up, things I want to say to people, tasks that are important versus urgent, confession to my conscience. I need a method to capture all this. A pen and paper waiting for me on the hood of my car?