While I take a break from running...

Patience is a virtue, right?

My legs were moving to the rhythm of the treadmill belt just under my feet, whirring away at about half the pace I normally run. But that’s okay, I told myself, because this was just a walk — a brisk walk, to be sure, but that’s really all it was, nothing to be worried about, because I was taking it easy.

And for a while, all went well… until it didn’t.

Inside my shoe, the skin under my right heel started to hurt, just a little at first. Then a little more, and then a little more. I told myself, “maybe it’ll go away in a minute or two.” But a minute or two goes by, a few more even, and the pain is still there.

In fact, it’s starting to get worse. Inside my shoe, it’s as if lightning is striking the little band of tissue across the bottom of my right heel. (Remember all those ads for pain relievers back in the seventies and eighties, when pain was always depicted with a lightning bolt? Now I know what they were talking about!)

I don’t want to, but I push the button on the treadmill to bring it to a full stop. My attempt at a walk — at trying to kid myself that my body was okay, actually — came to an end after just a few minutes.

A friend of mine runs a small company, and he shared with me recently that the business has been going through some tough months. He’s under pressure to cut costs, but he knows that won’t ultimately lead to the growth the owners of the company want to see. Sooner or later, it needs to start growing again: “Revenue is what solves a lot of problems.”

But what this experience has brought to light, he added, are parts of the business that weren’t working — and were easy to overlook when the business was growing.

Our conversation made me realize, maybe running has done the same thing for me, in terms of being aware of, and taking care of, my body and my health. I started running long distances for the first time in my twenties, when my metabolism burned like a furnace and, after I’d run ten miles or so, I could eat whatever I wanted.

That lasts forever, right?

In a way, I’ve relied on running to “bat cleanup” for my body, to help keep me healthy and fit so I didn’t have to look too closely at what I was eating, or at how I might be neglecting myself in other ways (like the strength training I know I should be doing, but aren’t).

Tomorrow, I start the process of seeing a podiatrist to get a better read on exactly what’s going on with my foot and how I can heal it. Hopefully, a speedy recovery is in the cards.

Until then, I wait as I do my stretching exercises, and work to get back to a place where I can do what we all love. How do you handle the wait when you’re hurt? What do you do to get through the process of recovering from an injury?

As always, I hope you’ve had a great week and gotten some great runs in — keep in touch and let me know how your running/life is going.

Your friend,

— Terrell

---

Run with us in Eugene this April

For this, I can’t wait: we’re getting together in person to run the Eugene Half Marathon in Eugene, Oregon, this April — here’s all the info on the race, and here’s where you can sign up.

If you missed the training plan for the race I sent out a few weeks ago, here’s this week’s miles:

• Thursday, Feb. 8 — 4 miles

• Saturday, Feb. 10 — 6 miles

• Sunday, Feb. 11 — 3 miles

• Tuesday, Feb. 13 — 4-5 miles

Soon, I hope, my heel will be on the mend — regardless, I’ll be there in Eugene, walking or running! 🏃🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️