Running on the Hardwood

On Tuesday, I returned to my podiatrist to get direction on how to wear my new orthotics.  That was also the first day I wore them for the entire day at work; no real problems, though on dress shoes you have to work the laces a touch to make the orthotic and shoe coexist in harmony. 

 

Dr. Hasse said that I should start wearing the orthotics all the time; any shoe that I wear, the orthotic should be in it.  Once my plantar fascitis abates (she thinks the orthotics will accomplish that), I can choose to only wear them in my running shoes if I prefer.  I was given clearance to start running, it actually seemed like she wanted me to run, though I was told to take it very slow.  She recounted a runner with new orthotics who came in complaining of pain from the new inserts.  "How much have you been running?"  "Only three miles two days ago, and three miles yesterday."  With that tale told, she emphasized that I should a) return to running very slowly and b) under no circumstances should I run on back-to-back days.

 

So on Wednesday, I laced up the running shoes for the first time in almost a month, and proceeded to Memorial.  Per the doc's advice (she wanted my first run to be two repeats of one half mile running, one half mile walking), I planned to take it easy and run one half mile, walk a half mile, turn around, and run the mile back.  The first half mile went well, with only some minor ankle/heel twinging towards the end.  After the somewhat boring half mile walk, I ran the mile return while trying to force my bad foot to relax; I get the sense that I've started controlling how it lands, perhaps due to the pain in the heel.  So ran I did, with my foot all loose and landing on the ground as it damn well pleased ... and things went great.  Everything (save a little hamstring pain) was good, the mile was fast enough to be respectable (under 10 min/mile) and I ended with renewed hopes that I've finally found the elixir of life for my running career (I was starting to worry that me and running were going to have to part ways).  I will run a mile, walk a half mile, then run 1.5 miles on my next trip to the park.  On my third trip, I will (get ready for it!) run three miles with no break!!!

 

There's still much internal debate about what shoes I should run in.  Dr. Hasse seems to be a fan of New Balance, but now that I've had a successful run in Mizuno, I would like to keep the shoes the same to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, whether the orthotics are really to be credited with any improvement.  I have about 40 miles left on these shoes, so perhaps I will run them out, and then decide how I should proceed.