Update time

Ok, here is the story, I was hoping to run the Med City Marathon after the failed attempt at Chippewa. To do that I needed to be able to run relatively pain free. So I bought some new shoes, Brooks Pure Cadence and I love them, I have enjoyed running in my Pure Grits as well except they aren't good in mud, snow or anything that requires traction and they weren't really intended for pavement. Over the weekend I figured if I was going to do Rochester then I needed to be able to do a 20 mile run. I was going to wear my new new shoes but I had decided to head to the river bottoms and thought that my Pure Grits would work better.

First I should back up just a bit, the night before I had run the Rave Run with my wife and the running group from church, not exactly an event that I want to do again. Although I do have to admit it was entertaining in it's own way and it only caused a little pain. The morning of my planned long run I ran 3 miles with the church group and intended to run another 17 miles afterward. Since it was windy, very windy, that was why I had decided to head to the River Bottoms. I parked along 13 right at old and new 13. My plan was to run to Lilydale as I figured running on pavement would be easier on the foot initially and I do like looking out over the rivers from the bike trail. I figured I would then come back and head into the River Bottoms at the Sibley house. I made a decision to instead just run on the bike path, it's 4 miles from 494 to Lilydale so if I ran it twice I would be at 16 miles for this run, 19 for the day which would get me close to what I wanted. I felt good for about 9 to 10 miles, ok good should be defined as being able to manage the pain. I had twinges in the early miles and then it got worse, I tried to walk and run through it but finally admitted defeat after a couple of more miles.

The next day walking hurt, frankly just sitting the foot hurt, so as I was continuing to do the ice, compression thing, I had a light bulb moment. It occurred to me that the tendon seemed to get more painful when I either ran on uneven surfaces or went longer than 10 miles. Ok, not a great revelation but then it become clear, my problem had to be my shoes. Now I have been only wearing 0 to 4 mil drop shoes and I have enjoyed them but the foot has been an issue for a while. In my mind the pain started at Surf the Murph, in looking through my logs, turns out that wasn't all together true. I did hurt my foot at STM but that is not where I have pain now and I did note some pain especially when I wore my NB 110's where I have pain now.

Turns out it's the leg I tore the calf muscle. That was my moment of clarity, I am wearing shoes that require my calf to stretch further, my calf was torn and since I do no stretching it probably is a bit shorter than it used to be . I did PT on the foot and the calf, when he resolved the calf this foot pain went away. So the last two runs I ran in some older shoes, and I was pain free. Ok maybe not pain free but reduced pain and I may be on to something. Thankfully I didn't follow Wayne's advice and throw out all of my old shoes.

Have I given up on minimalist running, nope but until I am pain free I am going to go back to old shoes for longer runs and see if they help me continue to run longer with less pain, if they don't work then I can always go to PT. Am I doing Med City, maybe but probably not. If I do it I will have to finish as I can't tolerate another DNF.