As fate would have it, I'm currently in the middle of a cycle of slow, easy zone 2 heart rate runs. Today, she and our lovable lab Apollo joined me on a 4-miler. For her, that's a long run (for me, too, actually). By the end of the summer...if all goes well...it won't be. She'll probably run in a few local All-Comer's track meets this summer, along with a few road races, but that will probably be the extent of any real "speed" work for her. No need to try staying sharp all summer. With a nice aerobic base, she'll be ready to step up for cross-country season and, hopefully, be ahead of most of her teammates.
Here's a pic of us before our run this morning:
 |
| Well, it's the angle, and the shirt...but, yes, I have a few LB's to drop... |
Orthotics Conundrum
I've been wearing my custom orthotics in my shoes—running and otherwise—for over a year now (not every run, but 90% of them). As recent as yesterday, both of my heels & achilles tendons were achy. Today, on a whim, I went with the factory inserts in my Brooks Ghost shoes instead of the orthotics. After our 4-mile run, my heels feel fine. Why?Here's my theory. I'm not sure if this is valid, based on 1 run (and knowing how quirky and on-and-off my heel pain can be), but I'm wondering if the orthotics are raising my feet high enough in the shoes that the pain zone in my heels is rubbing the top of the backs of my shoes. Maybe the thin factory inserts let my heels sit low enough that the rubbing is less. I dunno. I developed the problem without any orthotics in the first place, so my theory may not hold much water.
As an experiment, I'm going to do all my runs next week sans orthotics. I'll report the results next weekend.
Interesting theory Colin, I swear mine lift my feet just enough to make the tops of my feet hurt because of less room in the instep area. BTW Maffetone method so far allowing me to run farther painfree than when I ran at quicker/harder pace.
ReplyDelete