Injury update and revelations

Regular reader Joe was asking about the revelations from my physical therapy.

I walk fine but as I get faster my foot lands flat or towards the front of my foot. Missing the heel like this means much of my running is done on my toes. The next part is a chicken and egg problem - I have really stiff ankles which could either cause the running on my toes or be caused by it. It seems likely that the running on my toes has lead to over developed calf muscles and, because I rarely stretched after training, they limited the range of motion in my ankles.

The next issue she noticed was that in addition to not landing on my heel, I also push off on my big toe alone instead of all 5 toes at the same time which rolls my ankle inwards and could have been a major contributor to the strain on the inside of my ankle as my foot collapsed inwards. It certainly would be responsible for the plantar fascitis I have in my left foot which you feel first thing the morning. She recommended a set of green super feet inserts (http://www.superfeet.com/) to offer more stability. Since I have worn these the pain in the morning has subsided and I have noticed that as I am running I feel a more even push off.

I signed up yesterday for the Team in Training group here in Chicago to train for the San Diego marathon. Now I'll need the help of all my good friends to raise the $4000 required to keep me in the race.