“The best laid plans of mice and men runners often go awry.”
~Robert Burns (with editing by rUnladylike)

No matter how well we plan things; there is always room for the unexpected. In other words, I put together the best laid 10K plan, and a wrench has been thrown in to send it awry.

If you’ve been reading runladylike.com for the last few months, you may remember that I’ve had some ongoing issues with my feet since March. Here’s the quick CliffsNotes version to bring you up to speed:

• In mid-March, I had some pain on the outer edge of my left foot after a long run on the treadmill. I took some time off, obsessed like a crazy maniac that it might be a stress fracture and thankfully found out it was not. I completed the rest of my half marathon training plan with no problems.
• Then, after the Divas Half Marathon last month, I experienced some pain in both feet after the race (felt nothing during the race). This consisted of incredibly sore arches and the same pain on my outer left foot. It hurt to walk around following the race. After a week of no running, it all went away and I was back to normal.
• During the past few weeks, I’ve ramped my speed work and tempo runs back up. I haven’t experienced any pain while running, but when I walk after sitting or sleeping for long periods of time, my feet and ankles ache until I am warmed up and moving around. Additionally, there has been a tender spot on the top of my right foot between my third and fourth metatarsals.

So that brings us to today.

Although I don’t feel injured or have a specific injury per se, I know things are just not right with my feet. I never take any chances when it comes to injuries, because I want to be able to train for life – not just for the next race.

This morning, I finally went to see my sports medicine doctor.

He spent almost an hour with me and delivered both good news and bad news.

The good news is: I don’t have a stress fracture, I can continue running and he doesn’t think I have anything serious that a few weeks of specific attention won’t fix.

The bad news is: He doesn’t want me to continue with my speed and tempo work during the next 4 weeks, which means saying sayonara to racing my Peachtree Road Race 10K in 5 weeks with the performance I would expect of myself.

Yes, this could be way worse. I know that. But if I’m going to train and race, I want to do it 100 percent, not just at 70 percent. However, my upcoming 10K is not a goal race, so I’m keeping my eye on the next most important thing: Being 100 percent healthy for Hood to Coast.

So what is my treatment you might ask?

Here’s what I learned from my doctor today, and what I’ll be doing to tackle these issues during the next 4 weeks before going back for a reassessment:

• I have low arches. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a completely flat arch, I’m a 3. He wants me to wear inserts with good arch support in my shoes. But not just my running shoes – all of my shoes. He said it’s great to have good support while you’re running, but if I’m getting poor support every other hour of the day; I’m not really helping myself. So I now have a lovely pair of blue inserts I’m sporting. (Side note: I used to wear custom orthotics. To make a long story short, I donated some old running shoes to charity and accidentally left my very expensive inserts in them when I gave them away. I’d rather not talk about it. Ha!) My doctor did say he’d love for me to go get re-evaluated in my running shoes at my local running specialty store to make sure everything is looking good with the inserts, which I’ll do this weekend.
• I have what my doctor calls ankle instability, which is looseness and instability of the ankle joint. To strengthen my weak ankles, my doctor has prescribed a number of ankle exercises and stretches for me to do every day during the next 4 weeks.
• I need to increase my flexibility. Just by touching my feet and calves, my doctor noted that these areas are incredibly tight, along with my hamstrings and hips. He wants me to do a lot more stretching and said more deep stretch yoga would be good as well. I knew I shouldn’t have skipped yoga this entire last month!
• I have to reduce my speed. Because my bone scan in March did show somewhat of a hot spot on the top of my right foot (I was experiencing pain in the left foot at the time of the bone scan so this wasn’t seen as an issue), my doctor doesn’t want what could be a stress reaction to become a stress fracture. So I have to back off all my speed work. As in, replace all my speed work and tempo workouts with easy runs. Boo hiss. Bye bye fast 10K time, hello fun run.
• Biking and swimming get the stamp of approval. I can continue biking and swimming, along with strength training as normal in my plan. This will help keep up my endurance and power during the next 4 weeks as I back off running speed.

So what is the moral of this story? Yes, there actually is one.

• The best laid plans don’t always get executed. We need to be flexible and adjust for the unexpected. Replace old goals with new ones, and do the best you can.
• Racing isn’t everything. Being healthy is. Do what you need to do to be healthy and injury-free in the long-term. Do not run through pain. When in doubt, always go see a medical professional for aches and pains.
• Things could always be worse. Much worse. Be grateful for what you can do today.
• Running easy/slow is better than not running at all.

Want to read more about injury prevention? Check out my recent injury prevention series:
Injury Prevention Basics
Sports Massage for Runners
Running in the Right Shoes
Yoga for Runners
A Runner’s Story of Overcoming Injury and Coming Back Stronger

I want to hear your thoughts! If you were me, would you sell your 10K race number for the 4th of July or just run it for fun?