With the diminished ability to use my left foot, I have had to get creative with my workouts. I can still do leg presses as long as they are not using the stabilizer muscles in my feet. I am getting much better at pull ups and other upper-body exercises. Most abs and arms exercises are still okay, and on good days I can still do pushups (no, I don't do them girl-style).
Last night I walked at a 15 incline on the treadmill at a reasonably slow pace to baby my foot which I have had to wrap because it has been very inflamed the past couple of days. I have to be careful with the elliptical because always want to crank down on the tension so I feel I am getting a decent workout. That just seems to aggrivate the injury.
I finally broke down last night and asked fellow blogger 400 Watts how much recovery time he gave his plantar fasciitis since I am trying to figure out how to kick this thing without going flabby. He mentioned that he took two months off of running, but is running better than ever now. He biked during the interim.
Today I went to the gym for Yoga, but when I noticed that my fave teacher, Tyran, had a substitute, I went upstairs for a bike ride. Nothing personal, but the substitute instructor tries to do Yoga aerobics-style and I am in no shape for that right now. I bicycled for 35 minutes in flip flops at a nice tense level while reading Doc Gottman, and then spent 25 minutes lifting weights.
Why flip-flops, you may ask? I am trying to get closer to the barefoot running model - or at least minimalist running, and am trying to move away from ultra-structured shoes which may have been part of the problem in the first place. I tried on a pair of Vibram 5 Fingers and they seemed like they would work well. According to the barefoot running forum on Runner's World (and other suggested material from 400 Watts) it is best to move away from structured shoes gradually to strengthen foot tendons and muscles without injury.
Well, one bonus to my injury is that my upper body is also getting a great workout lately. I hope to come out of this in much better shape than when I started. Well, back to operating systems and C++. I have a lot of mental ground to cover today.
Hey buddy. About the time off deal, another friend of mine who was a marathon told me right off the bat I would need at least a month off. Period. He jumped on the bike and is still riding that competitively now for the last three or so years.
ReplyDeleteI am not going to give you any advice, since everyone is different and I do not want to advise something that ends up injuring you. However any questions on how I dealt with PF, I am here for you.