Flashes of Panic

“Which foot was it?”

I had the opportunity to run with Scott this weekend, and in that time after the run where you’re sitting (or standing,) stretching, soaking up Gatorade and feeling the sweat evaporate, he asked about my injury. It was my right foot.

“Because your right calf is more developed than your left.”

Well, he was looking at it, and when I looked down, I could see it too. I wonder if a cloth tape (or a piece of string) around them would show the difference. I can come up with a hypothesis linking the overdeveloped calf and the foot: the calf is, after all, the last muscle to apply force at toe-off, and the plantar fascia (which is what I had injured) is what delivers some of that force to the toes. I may simply have developed a muscle strong enough to strain that bit of connective tissue, which was then very slow to heal (particularly since the calf didn’t get notably less strong.)

We also discussed the theory which Scooter has raised here in comments, and which we both heard quite bluntly and directly from Arthur Lydiard, that if I wore “less shoe” (that is, less supportive, less built-up running shoes,) my feet would get stronger and support themselves. It’s an interesting theory and it seems like common sense to me, but it’s not one I’ve been able to successfully apply at earlier stages in my recovery process. I like less shoe; my favorite shoes ever have always been in the “lightweight trainer” category, the light slipper-like shoes that are just a few ounces from racing flats.

Of course, there’s also those rigid orthotics.

This is where the experiment of one aspect of running is a real liability. If I experiment with light shoes and strengthening my PF, and it goes badly, I could conceivably lose a few more months of running. Would I really want to try such an experiment, or would I rather just keep running? (And I wonder if I can correct the calf imbalance, and if that might help me stay relatively consistent?)

I told Scott I would consider myself 100% injury free when I could run in spikes again.

Now Playing: Come Home from Songs for a Hurricane by Kris Delmhorst

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