Week 9 --------- Number 9, Number 9

"We can often endure an extra pound of pain far more easily than we can suffer the withdrawal of an ounce of accustomed pleasure."


This was a pretty stressful week for me. I ended up not running for a week to let my heel get better and it did feel better after 7 days. I decided that after doing hill repeats on the bike Wednesday afternoon I would run the 5 miles to Weight Watchers and see how my heel held up. Well at about the 4 mile mark I could tell that I was running a bit different to compensate for the discomfort that I was having. When I got to Weight Watchers I iced my heel and rested it. The next morning I had to go to the doctors because I was in so much pain that I seriously thought my heel was broke. I had x-rays taken and no fractures or breaks were revealed so I was refered to see a Podiatrist on Monday. After more x-rays I was told that I am suffering from plantar faciaitis. To sum up what that is quickly, the plantar facsia is the thick tendons that run from the ball of your feet to your heel. Mine has a micro tear in it which is causing the pain in my heal. The doctor feels that with some arch support inserts and a diligent stretching routine that I will heal up soon. Whew..... I of course was thinking the worse.... broken bones, no running, no Ironman.

Onto a positive note. My first race of the season is this Saturday. I will be doing the Spring Classic Duathlon which is run 5k,bike 16 miles and then run another 5k. This is the first multi sport event that I did which in turn brought me to where I am now. It will be neat to see what improvements I have made in times this year. I know that I will beat last years bike time hee hee.


Well with 7 days off from running my training time was lower than what my goals were for the week. I tried to substitute my runs with biking which worked out pretty well.


My two favorite work-outs this week were getting the Kuota outside for the first time since October. I forgot how fast this bike is and it really showed in my hill workout. The other was my swim yesterday. 4000 yard swim at a 1:45/100 time. If and I do mean if I can hold that pace for my Ironman swim I would finish the swim in 1:17. We'll see.