Ice Ice Baby

On Sunday night, I went to sleep and had nightmares about pulling bones out of my heel.  That's how bad it hurt. I spent the night worried that I've been running for months on a stress fracture, but I really believe it's an achilles tendon issue: it doesn't hurt once it's warmed up.

When I woke up, I decided to spend a week trying to do everything I could to deal with the injury (without actually needing to take a week off from running). Here's what I've tried:

1. Foot strengthening exercises.  Seriously--a trainer told me my issue is caused by the fact that I have weak foot muscles.  I thought that was kind of silly until I tried doing the exercises.  Yes, I have very weak feet.
2. Stretching. I wait until I've warmed up the muscle and then do a few calf/achilles stretches, both before and after running.
3. Running :) but with much lower mileage than usual.  When I was training for my fall half marathon, my mileage was up to 40-48--it's much lower than that now, especially since my heel issues are exacerbated by longer, slower runs but not speedwork.
4. Rolling!  The foam roller is seriously one of the most amazing tools a runner can have.  
5. Ordering new shoes and an orthodic. I've been doing ALL of my running in Nike Frees, which I love, but I'm thinking having more cushioning for my very high arch during long runs will help.  
6. Icing.  15 minutes at a time, at least three times a day.
7. Taking anti-inflammatories twice a day.
8. Warm, salty foot soaks. I bought some bath salts, which seems a little decadent, but maybe it will help.
9. A massage scheduled for this morning. Ditto on the decadence, but it's for my health!
10. Lots of time barefoot.  
11. An x-ray scheduled for a week from today, in case I still have lingering pain.

I have woken up yesterday and today without the sharp pain I've been dealing with for months, and it looks like the swelling in my heel area has gone down a little, but it's hard to know if some of the pain's being masked by the Aleve I'm taking, or if it's gone. 

I'm hoping I feel good enough to have a strong run this weekend--I'm doing a 4.5 mile race while my boyfriend does a half marathon.  Until my injury peaked, I regretted signing up for the shorter race--now, I think it's just what the doctor (um, who I'm avoiding!) ordered.

Now I'm going to try to run four miles without having "Ice Ice baby" stuck in my head.