I seem to have a motivation problem. I have been unmotivated to update here with the various foot items I have dealt with this past year. As seen in the May post from 2015, I had to stop running last summer. In the mean time, I strengthened my feet, stretched my calf, rode my bicycle to Canada, again, and kept on keeping on.

Now, I find myself on the cusp of another beautiful spring/summer training/racing season with two small hitches:

1. A corn on the bottom of my left foot (What???) A corn, for those lucky enough to have never had one is a corn shaped (hence the name) hard callus-like formation under the skin. They usually appear on the toes, but if you are lucky enough to wear ill fitting shoes that cause friction or pressure in one spot on the bottom of your foot, you, too, may develop one of these lovely little guys. I have been trying to get rid of it by repeated use of a pumice stone on that area. So far, it has just continued to look like it does, but I have hope that one day I will get the entire corn out, which will relieve the irritation around it so that the sole of my foot can actually heal. I have since stopped wearing the shoes that I believe caused it. Here’s hoping!

2. Today I broke a toe on my right foot…. All the small inconveniences aside, I am continuing to train and walk everywhere.

I have also changed my running/training philosophy from the focus-on-speed-and-always-go-as-hard-as-I-can to the train-in-Zone-2-heart-rate (using the Maffetone Method) and check-in-to-see-how-my-body-is-doing.

What is a Zone 2 heart rate? One way to find it is to take your age and subtract it from 180. That is the low end of your Zone 2. If you have an injury, or are prone to injury, take another 5 off that number for your low end. Then add 10 beats per minute for your Zone 2.

Ex: I am 39. Step 1: 180-39 = 141; Step 2 (injury prone) 141-5 = 136; Step 3 (add 10): 136 + 10 = 146 –> My Zone 2 roughly estimated is 136 to 146 heart beats per minute.

How do I execute this type of run? I wear my heart rate monitor during the workout. To start, I walk for 15 minutes to warm up my body (I try to find a good hill to hike up so that my heart rate does get an increase during the warmup). Next, I run until my heart rate hits 146 (my heart rate monitor vibrates at me to slow down as I set it up to keep me in Zone 2). Then, I walk until my heart rate hits 136 (and watch vibrates), and I repeat for the amount of time or mileage I am working toward.

I’ve been doing the Zone 2 heart rate runs since January not super regularly because of ski season. I try to only do one load bearing activity per week (i.e. a run/walk Zone 2 training or skiing each week). Since instituting this simple rule/philosophy, I have not suffered from Posterior Tibial Tendon (PTT) inflammation except for the one time that I did a run/walk two days in a row (duh!).

How has my fitness been impacted? I can now workout at least 4 times per week (one run/walk for at least an hour – working toward 1.5 hours or 6 miles – or skiing for one day; two strength training workouts; and one or two bicycle training rides) without injury! This is huge. My goal is to be injury free (whoops – broke my toe!) for this training season, and so far so good on the tendon side.

What am I hoping to accomplish? Over time, this method is supposed to help your body be more efficient and enable you to eventually run faster in a lower heart rate zone. When I run for an extended period of time, my heart rate is typically 163 to 170 beats per minute. So, my goal is to have my heart rate be in the 150’s when I run continuously (at least on flat terrain). Only time will tell for this goal.