I woke up this morning and as soon as I swung my right foot out of bed and put pressure on it, a familiar pain shot through my foot. I tried to pretend and imagine it wasn't there, but the only thought that kept screaming through my mind as I was standing in the shower was "Day off. Take a day off."
Unfortunately, I couldn't completely take a day off today. I had two meetings at school today that needed attending, so I couldn't spend the whole day off my feet as I really would have liked to. At first, I went against my better judgment (which is something I really need to stop doing) and I pulled on my KSOs when I walked out the door. I did smartly bring a pair of Converse to wear in case my feet got tired. The walk to school was very painful. I tried very hard not to limp, but it was not easy. I pretty immediately regretted my decision to wear the Vibrams at all, but I had a sneaking suspicion that walking in anything would not be comfortable today.
As soon as I got to my office, I changed into my Converse. It was the first time I had worn shoes other than the VFFs since I bought them. I didn't remember the toes of the shoes being quite that constricting, but I was very relieved to have something supportive around my ankle. The relief, unfortunately, was short lived. Walking in the Converse was just as uncomfortable as walking in the VFFs.
The frustrating part of all of this is that my left leg and foot are strong and have no problems, but my right leg and foot are much more weak. I'm really regretting having gone for that run on Tuesday. Especially now that I have done even more reading and the experts say that even experienced runners should start off incredibly slowly and run only about 100 yards on the first go. Oops.
On the bright side, being injured and attempting to walk in a way that hurts the least has left me able to evaluate and notice a few things.
1. As soon as I put the Converse back on my feet, I was walking differently. I had been experimenting with landing on my fore-foot as well as my heel while barefoot, but even when I landed on my heel, the motion was a controlled shift through to my big toe. When I walk in my shoes, I land hard on my heel and instead of the weight shifting forward to my toes, the weight shifts sideways onto the arch of my foot.
2. If I attempted to control the motion of my right foot as I walk, either by heel striking or fore-foot striking, the muscles screamed with pain. I'm not sure which was more painful, the muscle pain or the bone pain. Clearly, those muscles in my arch and calf have been extremely overworked.
3. Standing with my bare feet flat on the ground, it is obvious that the muscles in my right foot are weaker than my left. The left foot has a more solid foundation on all the padding that you would expect to see in a footprint, whereas my right foot really overpronates just when standing.
I've been icing my foot and hopefully tomorrow I can try to stay off it, because I really don't think that limping around is the the best idea... seems a little counter productive.
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