School of Feet (02/07/10)

Have you ever spent a lot of time thinking about your feet? About your shoes? About walking in general? I know I certainly hadn't until I started training for this walk. I got more of an education this weekend as well. After yesterday's walk in the rain, I was actually feeling a little bit of a stabbing pain in my right foot. I soaked them in the foot spa. It wasn't persistent after that, but every once in a while it would hurt when I stepped on it. I started worrying about a possible injury and got online to see if I should be concerned about the symptoms. They fit pretty well with a stress fracture and the description of how you generally get a stress fracture in your foot fit with my increased walking and/or tap class. If this is what my problem was, I would have to stop both tap and my walking for 6-8 weeks to allow it to heal.

I got a bit stressed out at that point. I feel such a drive to do this and I couldn't imagine stopping my training. I got momentarily depressed. Then I started trying to figure out what I COULD do if I wasn't allowed to walk distances on my foot? Swimming! One of my first loves, as far as exercise is concerned. I quickly looked up our local YMCA and found out that for a pretty reasonable fee, I could start swimming laps to keep up with at least a cardio workout AND they have child care that is part of the membership. Phew, at least I could keep going with something.

So this morning I headed in to urgent care to get my foot checked out. The doctor took a look at my foot, poked around, checked for pain in other places on my foot and then taught me something new about my feet. One of my toes is what they call a "hammer toe". The first "knuckle" pokes up instead of lying relatively flat. It's only slight, but it is enough to cause stress in the rest of my foot and he believes that this is what is causing my problem. He said I should rest it and take an anti-inflammatory, but that it shouldn't take long for the pain to subside and I can (gently) resume training once the pain is gone. He reiterated that I need to make sure I'm walking in supportive and well fitted shoes. If it gets worse or doesn't go away, I need to see my regular doctor.

So disaster averted, but needless to say, I didn't train at all today. I won't be pushing myself too hard in the near future and I won't train again in my old shoes at all.

Fundraising: Total: $2,055.00
Training: Day off
Total miles to date: 48.6