My Little Chickensh**t Walk (And A Couple Of Other Only Mildly Interesting Things)

   I had hoped that by today I would have a blog post ready describing the 3D GAiT assessment I was scheduled to have yesterday at SoleScience here in London. Unfortunately the appointment needed to be re-scheduled to next week, so THAT post will have to wait a little longer.
   Today, I had been thinking that I would go out for my first run in two weeks. I'd been following (fairly closely) the at-home regimen Dr. Dombroski had recommended for treating the p-fash which has been my close companion for over a month now. The heel was feeling great and as I was walking around today it felt perfectly normal. Dr. Dombroski had even suggested giving running a try as I now had my new orthotics. Evrything pointed to giving it a shot--- and then I chickened out.
   The heel felt great, the new shoes felt wonderful, I wanted to run--but I still chickened out.
   I'm not totally sure why I did this. More than anything, I think it might have been the fact that, because the heel was SO good, I didn't want to risk taking a backward step. I felt that the psychological impact of going from no pain back to pain might have been more than I was prepared to handle at the moment.

Part of the route. Looks flat. It ain't.

   I opted instead for a 5K walk, following the hilly route I'd been running to prepare myself for the Uxbridge 5K trail run in two weeks. I chose to walk it as fast as I possibly could, so that the heel would get a decent workout without as much fear of reinjuring it. I even Garmin'd it. My virtual running partner was "on" and was set to a running pace. Very quickly my virtual partner outdistanced me and disappeared from the screen (I had visions of him on my front porch, waiting for me to show up...) but this didn't bother me. I completed the walk in about forty-five minutes and enjoyed the mild sweat it caused. I re-stretched, massaged and iced and will see how things are in the morning. If I'm still feeling good, I will repeat the same thing but will add perhaps a kilometer of running to the mix and see how that goes. Assuming it goes okay, I will very gradually increase the running.
   Now for the Only Mildly Interesting stuff.


My plantar fasciitis killers.

   I now have orthotics. So far, they feel great and I really hope they help prevent further p-fash episodes. Fingers crossed there. In the process of removing sock liners from various pairs of shoes the past few days in order to slide in the orthotics, I discovered something quite interesting. Well, it was interesting to me, a fairly new runner, it may actually be old hat to other, more seasoned runners. When I removed the sock liner from the left shoe of my new Air Pegasus+29's, I discovered a funny little foam tab. My wife then got curious and removed the foam tab. This left a plastic hole, or well.
   I couldn't for the life of me figure out what this hole was for and why only in the left shoe.



Above, plugged. Below, unplugged.

   Quickly I went to Google and discovered what it was. This is the built-in spot for your Nike Sensor. The Sensor is a wireless transmitter which will send running data (times, laps, pace, calories burned, etc.) directly to your iPod nano, iPod touch, Nike+ SportBand or iPhone, so that you can view it, as you are running.

Nike Sensor
 

   Okay, this was pretty cool! Not sure if I'll ever get the Sensor but it was still good to know.
   At this point, it's several hours since my strenuous little chickens**t walk and the heel is a little more tender than it was before. I'm not too worried about this, I'll find out in the morning if there's been a major setback at all. My new mantra has become time will tell and heal as well! Cheers!