That Was Some Doctor

I went to see Dr. Johnson at Tria Orthopaedics yesterday.  I kinda expected the usual stuff, "stop running so much," "you're not getting any younger" or "stop, now!"  Dr. Johnson was different.  Not only is he a "running injury specialist" (what a country) but a serious runner as well.  How serious?  He will be running his 30th TC Marathon. (for those of you scoring at home that's all of them!)   He also has run most of  Grandma's Marathons.  We're not talking slogging either; his PR is sub 2:50!  So anyway, I tell him my self-diagnosis (which was correct BTW) and he says, "Well, since we're in mid-training for TC Marathon, we have only a few options left.  Since quitting now isn't one of them, here is what we can do."  Anyway he gave me a bunch of exercises, stretches and suggestions, most of which I already know about, but the cool thing is that he gets it.  Isn't this what doctors are supposed to do?  Understand their patients.  His last words of advice were, "it's up to you how much pain you want to run through."  How cool is that?

So, I ran 5 miles with my marathon clinic last night and it hurt, but not bad.  I ran 9 miles this morning and it hurt, but again, not so bad.  My big problem is running anything faster that 8 minutes per mile right now.  My heel really starts to bark when I pick up the pace, which is a big fat bummer, because the speed-work portion of my training started yesterday.  Per doc's suggestions I got a pair of the Superfeet inserts and I've been wearing them for 1 full day and my foot is already feeling better.  Perhaps its the placebo effect, but I'll take anything right now.  I'm going to get a good night's sleep tonight (in my splint) take one more recovery day and try some tempo work on Friday.  If this goes on for more than another week or so, I will seriously have to rethink my goal.

Got my new pairs of Mizuno Enigmas yesterday, so not only did I run in my new Superfeet, but also ran in my new shoes.  They are a bit more shoe than I am use to running in, but the price was right. (Mizuno gave me a pair to test out!)

I have two dilemmas. The first is do I race my scheduled 5k at Como Park this week-end?  It's part of the Grand Prix and I only have two mulligans left.  Second dilemma is on September 17th there are two races on the same day that I want to run.  One is the City of Lakes 25K, which is also part of the Grand Prix, and Heart of the Prairie 5 miler which is a race in my hometown.  I ran it once before, but that was 35 years ago.  Hopefully I'll be healthy enough to make a choice.  Speaking of the Grand Prix Race Series, I have to toot my own horn.  I am currently in 4th place overall.

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MDRA Place	Name	Age	Total Points	Meet of Miles	Frigid 5k	Human Race	GiG 10k	NP Half	BK 5k	Gr Mar	Rice St Mile	Como 5K	Rochester 1/2	Victory 10k	City-Lakes 25k	TCM	Rocky 6k
1	Kirt Goetzke	50	6197	821	0	861	925	1000	885	919	786	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Jim Clark	43	5261	875	0	875	896	889	869	0	857	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	George Fulp	49	5218	518	0	778	746	833	770	811	762	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Rick Larsen	49	4964	750	0	833	851	861	836	0	833