It’s official, I’m training for my first half marathon of 2015. SeaWheeze is only 14 weeks out!

This is my first half that I’m actually on schedule for training (I know it’s only the first week and I have plenty of time to get behind, but for once I’m not injured from day 1). I’m ready to slowly add mileage and feel strong.

The past two years I have used the SeaWheeze app to train for my first three half marathons, so it’s a no brainer that I’m doing it again… with some changes.

Here’s how it will break down for me:

Mondays: CrossFit or olympic lifting (also known as “cross-training” according to my app)
Tuesdays: Short run, between 30-45 minutes depending on how far into training)
Wednesdays: CrossFit or olympic lifting
Thursdays: Recess! or speed work. Minimum of three miles.
Fridays: CrossFit, olympic lifting, or optional rest day (ha! I should work on that one…)
Saturdays: Long run
Sundays: Power yoga, optional 20 minute run

So far I’m super pumped for my schedule, although I know that as my mileage increases and the race gets closer I will have to back off on weight and intensity at CrossFit and start taking a for real rest day that I don’t sweat… unless it’s on a yoga mat in an easy class.

To say I was not prepared for this race was an understatement. I hadn’t run more than a 10k (let alone consistently run or train) in months. My longest run was five miles the weekend before where I complained the whooooole way.

Was I trying to make up for the height I lost standing in a hole with my hat?

I spent most of the week leading up the race worried. My feet were bothering me, so much so that I would dream about not being able to run at night. I wasn’t sure if I should even run. My mom had signed the three of us (herself, my brother, and me) up for the race months ago, and I couldn’t imagine not even crossing the start line. Especially since we were going to start at Crissy Field and run across the Golden Gate Bridge.

I decided to risk irritating my feet even more and run the race. I knew I could take a few weeks off and still have plenty of time to build my mileage up before I need to start training for my summer half marathon.

The weather was amazing. There were actually times when I wished I had worn shorts. Shocking for San Francisco, especially over the Golden Gate Bridge. We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

For the first mile and a half, I thought about stopping. My feet were killing me, and I couldn’t imagine running another 5 miles through it. Thankfully by the time we had reached the start of the bridge, my plantar fascia had warmed up and my calves had loosened. I started to settle into our slow and steady pace, and I stopped worrying about turning back before it was too late.

Someone’s excited

By the end of the race I was feeling pretty great. My brother decided we should push it for the last mile, so we did the nice thing and dropped our mother so we could pick up the pace (sorry, mom!).

In hindsight, it wasn’t my best decision, but I don’t think I would give a different answer if I could go back. I desperately needed to feel the speed of my legs. I needed to know that I still had it in me to drop below an 8 minute mile. I needed to know I still had a kick in me. That I still had the ability to push through, even when I want to stop and throw up.

And push it we did. We dropped our pace from an average 11 minute mile to a 9 minute mile for mile 6. For the last quarter mile, I gave it everything I had to pull off a 6:25. I can’t put into words what that final kick felt like. My legs were strong and I was flying. I wanted to throw up and smile at the same time (it was confusing).

When we finally crossed the finish and started to run around I knew the pick-up (and especially the final kick) had done me in. My calves and arches were protesting, and they continued to bother me for a few days after.

But I don’t regret it at all. It actually gave me hope for this summer’s half marathon and my time goals for the year. It reminded me that I was not always an injured runner. I won’t be injured forever.

I had some big milestones this week. I ran my first race since October (more about that soon). I completed my longest run in 5 months. And biggest of all, I hit over 1,000 all-time miles.

I know some people run 1,000 miles in a handful of months, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come. Between injuries, graduating from college, my first full time job, and everything else I’ve experienced in the last four years, 1,000 miles feels pretty damn good.

Here’s a sneak peek of yesterday’s race location.

By the numbers

Three CrossFit classes (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
One sweaty heated power yoga class
11.42 miles! (including a 10k race)
Lots and lots of PT, foam rolling, lacrosse balling, and stretching

My comeback is well on its way, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t setbacks. I’m taking a few days off running after yesterday’s race to give my poor feet a chance to catch up on healing and relax again. I was feeling pretty good, but a couple days before the race my plantar fascia started to bug me. After really pushing it for the last mile of the race, they deserve a break.

Do you ever have days where your body fights back? The whole end of this week was a long series of those days.

Monday

I switched up my week a bit and ran on Monday instead of my usual Tuesday morning. (Side note, getting to work on a Monday morning and immediately heading outside for a run is a great way to ease back into the week.)

Tuesday

My workout on Tuesday felt pretty good while I was doing it. Afterwards was a totally different story. My sore abs haunted me for the next four days. You heard me. Four!

Barbells are for getting stronger… and rolling out your tight, crunchy calves.

Wednesday

Because my run was switched to Monday, I went to CrossFit again on Wednesday. I’m a baby – CrossFiting two days in a row is not for me. So much whining, so little energy. And yet I still PRed my jerk. I failed once, and nailed it on my second attempt (and of course I didn’t take a photo or video because I didn’t think it was going to happen and too many people were staring at me). Since I PRed and all, I bailed on all of my extra work. All of it. No PT. Nothing.

Thursday

My abs were the most sore on Thursday. The good news is that I use my abs/core when I run.

Friday

I rarely think to myself “I’m going to quit. Let’s just quit right now. Just stop.” during a workout. But this workout was so horrible. Five minutes into the first set of exercises I wanted to just lie down. 10 minutes in and I could no longer hold onto things like a normal person (great time to climb ropes). Halfway through class I thought I was going to throw up (bonus points for not?). Then I was trying to talk myself out of passing out (that’s how it works, right?). I was the last one to finish. I went home feeling slightly nauseous and completely unsure why I didn’t just quit.

Saturday

Less than 24 hours after my last terrible workout I went for my longest run in months. Five miles felt like 13. I had to take walk breaks. I had to apologize to my running buddy for endless complaining. I rambled about how hard running is, how much my stomach hurt, how tired my legs felt, how cold it was, how hot it was. I talked endlessly. Sometimes to distract myself, other times because I couldn’t stop thinking about how miserable I was.

Which is ridiculous. I have waited so long to feel that miserable. I should have shut up and enjoyed it. (I didn’t, I complained about how five miles used to be so easy.) The voice in my head can be a total bitch.

Sunday

Records may have been broken for total time spent in bed. It was glorious.

Break down:

3 hours of CrossFit
1 solid PT session (I will do better next week!)
zero yoga (I did stretch outside of class…)
10.54 miles (Helloooooo double digits!!!!)

My comeback is starting to feel awful real…

Monday

After months of squatting on and off (and feeling like I’m beating myself into the ground for no progress), I PR’d by back squat… and didn’t even notice. Despite the fact that I failed (twice) to get a squat I am fairly certain I can make , I still grabbed a new PR. I thought my PR was 5 lbs. more than it really was, and I didn’t notice it until days later. I followed up my frustrating failures with this painful workout that includes 1 min ring holds. Ouch!

My nemesis for the day. #oly #crossfitgirls #LikeAGirl

A photo posted by Mandy Ferreira (@treading_lightly) on Mar 23, 2015 at 6:42pm PDT

Tuesday

Someday I am going to be running 12 miles and be dreaming of the days I only ran 2 miles. Right now I’m dreaming about the 12 miles and trying to stay focused on how great it is I can run at all.

Wednesday

This was one of those days where I felt like I was unstoppable. I hit heavy snatches over and over again. My form for once felt fluid and strong. And I even started to really pull myself under the bar. I’ve since deleted the rest of the workout from my memory (after I finally stopped being sore 4-5 days later).

Thursday

2.5 miles. Boom.

Friday

Instead of doing 15.5 days after doing thrusters (HA, no thanks), I lifted on my own. It was great to work on some weaknesses and do my own thing. I did some front squats and clean drills. And then a ton of exercises for my hips and ankles.

Saturday

I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to do this run. On Friday my body decided to give me shooting pain through my right ankle with no warning or cause (that I can figure out). It continued throughout the day, and after sitting in traffic for an hour, I had to hobble out of the car.

But I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty good and decided to try it. I figured I could turn around and walk if the pain came back, but instead I made it through my longest run in months. Hello four miles. I sure did miss you.

Sunday

After a busy day walking all over San Francisco, I took the day off from yoga (and even called it a “rest” day ; ) ).

Numbers:

Ran 9.01 miles. Killin’ it
More than 2 hours of feet, ankle, and hip strengthening, stretching, and loosening.
Total 0.5 lb. (delicious) containers of guacamole eaten by me: 1.75  (I don’t know who ate all the ice cream though. Definitely wasn’t me.)

Posterior tibial tendonitis is frustrating. You feel it in every step you take, and it drives you insane when you are sitting on the couch instead of out for a run. I’ve been there, and I never want to be there again.

I am a firm believer that injuries are your body’s way to alert you to an imbalance or weakness, and mine has spoken loud and clear.

I have spent the past year scouring the Internet and talking to every specialist I’ve met (the amazing people at the RunSafe clinic, doctors, physical therapists, massage and bodywork therapists, other PTT athletes) to find the best exercises to treat my PTT and prevent it from ever (EVER!) coming back.

There are three main areas you need to strengthen if you are suffering from PTT (or any other ankle/foot injury) the feet, ankles/lower leg, and the hip. Instead of trying to explain how to do all of these exercises myself, I linked each one to more information and instructions.

Here are some exercises I’ve been doing, from the bottom up:

Feet

Whether you start with flat feet or PTT causes your arch to fall, chances are you are in need of some serious arch support. Realign your arch and reduce the stress on your plantar fascia with these exercises.

Toe curls with a towel

Toe squeeze and spread (rubber bands are great for a little resistance)

Doming

Standing on one foot/balance work
Without shoes, stand on one leg for 30 seconds or so and focus on maintaining an arch while keeping your balance. Once the 30 seconds gets easy, add time/sets, try it with your eyes closed, or really challenge yourself by standing on a Bosu or another uneven surface. Be careful with this one! Balance work can really irritate my tendons. Be sure to work up to it very slowly. I mean it when I say to start for just 30 seconds on each side.

Ankles/lower leg

For all exercises that you do with a band, you can buy a TheraBand (or any other therapy band) online.

Calf raises
Watch out! This is another one where you really need to ease into it. These irritated my PTT when I first started doing them. I had to start doing these sitting in a chair, just lifting the weight of part of my legs. Once I was able to do that, my physical therapist had me set a bit of weight on my knees (a heavy book works great if you don’t have access to hand weights). I did three sets of 10 reps (both legs at the same time) with the weight on my knees for about a week. Once I could do that easily, I moved on to leaning fairly heavily on a counter and lifting part of my body weight for three sets of 10. I’m currently doing three sets of 10 with my full body weight, but both legs at the same time. I’m going to progress to doing them mostly on one foot until I can do them one leg at a time with all of my body weight. If you are super advanced and you have gone through the whole progression, you can add weight, but do it slowly!

Ankle dorsiflexion with a band

Ankle inversion with a band

Ankle eversion with a band

Hips

Your hips are critical for keeping your gait balanced and even. Recent studies have shown that the hips are linked to everything from knee pain to ankle pain. These very well might be the most important exercises on the list. Don’t skip these! (Curious about where your hips are the weakest? Try this test.)

Side step with a band

Glute bridge
Weighted, unweighted, one leg, two legs – any and all variations are great!

Single-leg deadlift
Way less scary than they sound.

Squats

Side leg raises

Hip hikes

It turns out when my PTT flairs up, I give up on writing these updates. Which is sad because my life doesn’t stop, I don’t stop training, it just looks a little different.

So here it is, in all of its injury-interrupted glory:

3/2-8

I started March feeling pretty good. I had a solid plan for how I was going to slowly ramp up my mileage in time for the 10k I’m “racing” in April. I wasn’t worried about only having a month to go, and my body was handling the slow increase in mileage well.

Until it wasn’t.

Between a lot of balance work at CrossFit and the “extra” distance I was running, my feet fought back. I had started the week of 3/2 feeling strong with an accidental 3.5 mile run (I was shooting for 2.5-3). I followed that up with a CrossFit workout that had a lot of overhead work, and I never really bounced back. My short run on Thursday went alright, but after doing the 15.2 CrossFit Open workout that Friday, my feet were toast on Saturday for my “long” run. I had 4 miles on the schedule, but within a few steps my feet were killing me. I hobbled home after less than a mile and proceeded to feel sorry for myself for the rest of the day.

3/9-15

I accepted (mostly) the sate of my feet and took the week off from running. I did my best to reduce the strain I put on my feet at CrossFit by cutting out jumping and going a bit lighter on weights so I didn’t have to drive as much through my calves or struggle to stay balanced.

I also spent the time I would have been running working on my olympic lifts and strengthening my feet and hips to help stabilize everything when I run. Glute bridges, side steps with a band, ankle exercises with a band, and calf raises are all the rage these days.

I miss my morning run, but I can’t complain about starting the day with a nice quiet lift. #LikeAGirl #crossfitgirls #oly

A photo posted by Mandy Ferreira (@treading_lightly) on Mar 10, 2015 at 8:13am PDT

3/16-22

I started hesitantly running again. I’m still playing around with pacing, distance, and even taping my ankle/arch to figure out the best way to move forward. I did another whopping 7.8 miles for the week, but I didn’t get pain while I was running, which seems like a win if you ask me. I made it through my “long” run of 3 miles without incident and even woke up feeling alright the next morning. I’m calling it progress.

The real bummer of the week was the discovery that yoga is definitely contributing to my PTT symptoms. All of the balance on bare feet kills me. My arch can’t support itself well enough, and all of that tugging on my tendons gives me pain that starts in my feet and keeps going up my ankles. I have been taping my ankle and arches when I go to class, but it’s still not enough. I’m going to take a few weeks off to let my body calm down before I try it again (modifying poses of course to reduce the tugging on my inflamed tendons). Fingers crossed it works and I can run all three days this week.

What do you call a runner that can’t run? Depressed.

Junior year of high school I went from being the starting point guard to the score keeper in a cast days before the season was set to start. With half the basketball season out of the question, I sat on the sidelines and watched my team move on without me. I spent more time crying and feeling sorry for myself than I did practicing.

Now it’s years later, my team is just me, myself, and I, and yet being forced to stop doing what I love feels an awful lot like that ruined basketball season. I spend my time obsessing over all of the things I can’t do and wallowing in jealousy over everything everyone else is doing without me.

Almost exactly a year ago I had my first inklings of pain in my feet. As my injury progressed, I spent two months unable to run (and  losing my mind). I didn’t know what to do with myself, and the thought of losing all of the strength and endurance I worked so hard for for years just wasting away while I had to rest physically hurt almost as much as my feet and ankles. I tried running and not running, doing yoga, going for a swim, riding my bike, but no matter what the pain followed (and often worsened). Meanwhile the weeks ticked by and my half marathon grew closer and my mileage goals for the year more impossible.

Trying to undo all of the training mistakes I made this week with some #yoga and #mobility. #PlantarFasciitis

A photo posted by Mandy Ferreira (@treading_lightly) on Feb 23, 2014 at 3:24pm PST

With each doctors appointment, new shoes, new inserts, etc. I got a sense of hope and would finally start to feel my mood lift. But days or weeks later when there wasn’t any improvement and I couldn’t sit still without thinking about the pain in my feet, I was right back under my dark cloud that rains all over me. I was desperate for a turning point and for some real hope. I started to throw myself into my PT exercises, contrast baths, and everything else I could do to heal faster. I stayed away from sugar and other foods that are taxing on my body. I pushed through some pain and pulled back before I made things worse. I listened to my body (and hopelessly ignored it). And it worked. I slowly got better. I got stronger. I ran a half marathon. And then another eight weeks later. All the while I lived in fear that my pain would return, that I would be broken again. Sidelined. But after a while the fear faded, and with it went my adherence to my exercises, the contrast baths, the self-massages, the intuition to listen to every little twinge in my body.  

 

I’m still flying on my Nike Women’s SF finish. #tbt #runchat #werunsf

 

A photo posted by Mandy Ferreira (@treading_lightly) on Oct 30, 2014 at 3:08pm PDT

 

I got careless.

And I paid for it.

It’s a year later, and my PTT is back. Another flair-up. Another setback. Another frustration.

But this time I know. I know I need to be doing my exercises. I know my shoes aren’t going to be a magical fix. I won’t suddenly wake up one morning able to run 13 miles.

Comeback’s are a struggle. But they are worth fighting for. I have four weeks until I run my first race since October, and I am sure as hell going to be at that starting line strong. I am going to strengthen my hips, my ankles, my feet. I will create a solid base that will keep me going through the summer and into the fall. I am going to have months without pain, without limits.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I’m looking forward to being set free, to being stronger than before.