Sensible vs. Stubborn

Sunday, January 22, 2017 · Mike Davis

Good morning

Grab your coffee and join me.

Hope you are coming off a great week and looking forward to an even better one! Last week was far from my best running week (more about the in a bit), but overall I had a terrific week and excited about the start of another. As I chatted about Friday, I added salmon to my diet, not once, not twice, but THREE times! I understand that is excessive, but my makeup is such that by eating it in such volume, I adjusted better than if I spaced it out. I bought more salmon for this week and while I won’t be eating it 3 times, I will have it twice. Last week also included some other healthier diet choices as well, and add to that some good strength training workouts, along with a little running and physically fit wise, I was pleased. What really makes a week wonderful, is when I can see the important blessings that are bestowed on me and how those impact my faith. A healthy body, healthy soul and striving to get a healthier brain, altogether, make for a great week! It all begins with how I approach the challenges that I presented to me. (See Friday’s chat)

Speaking of challenges, as I have chatted about previously, I was back running in a pair of zero drop shoes, in hopes that my biomechanics would adjust over time. It has been around 6 weeks and over 100 miles of running and unfortunately my left ankle (which is connected to my left foot), was an unwilling participant. Between my own observations of my left foot strike and discussion with a former athletic trainer, it was our belief that the lack of mobility in my left ankle, stresses the facia on plantar and put the two together, and you get plantar fasciitis. I have been giving special attention to stretching the ankle prior to running in hopes that it would result in a better mobility (better foot strike) and had no success. I believe that this issue affected my calf negatively on Tuesday as I had to pull up during my run because the same side calf tweaked some. I certainly did not want to start down that path again and so I actually shut down my running for the week. Battling a calf strains for much of 2016 was frustrating enough, that I did not want to run one step beyond feeling that strain.

Based on my own experience and talking with my Exercise Science teacher (and former athletic trainer), it made sense to move back to a shoe that my running gait preferred. This does not mean I can forget about the ankle mobility issue, because that is something that needs to be addressed. However, trying to force my biomechanics to adjust to a zero drop shoes, is not working. As stubborn as I can be, I rather run than to nurse plantar fasciitis. It is not that I dislike the Triumph at all, because they are great shoes and have treated me well. It is just that my desire has always been to get as close to natural in my running as possible and zero drop shoes are just that. I will never say never, but ‘zero drop’ may not be for me.

I believe it was last Sunday I mentioned how great I felt physically and that I would like to find a half-marathon at some point. Thankfully I feel like I have approached this foot issue smart enough, that I can still move toward that idea. I am still thinking at least a couple of months out, so I have time to get the foot healthy as well as train effectively. I found some great half’s in March that might be fun to run and they are all fairly local, so once I get a healthy week of running completed, I will sign up!

I must say that I really miss not being able to stop in to Runners Alley for my running shoes and other running needs. I drove to Fayetteville yesterday and went to a running store that has great reviews on Yelp and I was somewhat disappointed. Besides paying a lot more for shoes than I do at Runners Alley, they also had minimal in the way of running stuff altogether. Literally, they had 3 running ball caps and not like 3 styles, but like I purchased 1 and they now have 2! Also, every time I turned around the sales kid was like: asking me what I was looking for? Runners Alley may seem like a small store, but between their expertise and overall selection, they are one of the great running stores anywhere.

Time to move along and get ready to worship our creator. I hope you have a great week, even if the snow is bringing you down! Find a way to challenge yourself this week!

God Bless!

Mike