August 17th, Thursday

Ran the longest continuous run tonight on the track and around the campus at Liberty HS with almost no discomfort in my heel pad.  That is welcome progress.  I am mow convinced that aggressive and torturous golf ball rolling and pressure are having a positive effect on my plantar fasciitis .  The level of sharp pain during the rolling treatments has also dramatically declined.  I am not backing off the hard-core rolling sessions until all pain is  gone.  I do it all day and night.

August 14th, Tuesday

At a very positive Liberty cross country practice tonight, I rode the bike for about 5 miles. Along the way I stopped and actually ran a few strides now and then to test the progress of my heel issues. Felt pretty good. Have to keep working on it

August 15th, Wednesday

Arlene and I spend a very lovely afternoon at Holmdel Park. Had a little picnic lunch while we enjoyed the breezes in the shade as we sat and took in the pretty lake scene.  I took out some time to test my foot again. I did a number of short straightaways and a few longer efforts. I think I am making progress, and it certainly felt good to be running.

August 12, Saturday

Disbite yesterday’s post about not swimming or running I went to the pool this evening and swam and ran.  Just couldn’t stand the idea of taking  another day off with no workout at all.  ( 20 minutes swimming and 30 minutes running)  Still torturing my heel.  I think I’m starting to like the pain. Is that a bad thing.

Stats-

Sleep = 8 hours

Weight  = #155

Morning heart rate = 54bpm

Diet = 9

Feet in process.

August 11th, Saturday

About 40 minutes in the weight  room tonight  in place of foot activity.  Also working on hard-core golf ball rolling on my heel. It hurts like torture,  but everything I have read for the last week about treating plantar fasciitis involves new devices and procedures and techniques to beat the hell out of the affected area with the purpose of breaking up calluses to allow for the growth of new tissue.  I can do that to myself for free. So I am tearing up the heel pad on my left foot with a freaking golf ball to see what happens after I do it for a week. No foots activities, bike, swim or run.

Stats are solid and stable.  Heel still needs work!

August 8th,  Wednesday

A couple of bricks in the wall.?

After two days off, I ran a double workout today.   Arose at 6 a.m. to embark on an invigorating 11 mile bike ride before the heat of the coming day.  That took about 1:10.  Later in the evening I ran for  25 minutes in the pool.  Both workouts were punctuated with frequent surges of from 30 to 60 seconds.  Solid day!  Making the best of limitations forced by uncooperative heel.

Stats-

Diet = 8

Sleep = 7

Weight =  #155

Morning HR = 54 bpm

Plantar fasciitis heel discomfort = 5/6  !

I-Mad = 1

August 5th,  Sunday

This evening I arrived at the pool about 7 p.m. and to my dismay there were four people floating around in the pool. Now I can share a large pool with 4 people without a problem. However, this crew had no concept of allowing for a lane for a swimmer. They simply drifted randomly in every direction taking no note of me trying to swim laps. I did manage to swim for 20 minutes without crashing into anyone. But I continue to be amazed at how unaware people are, or just plain stupid or purposefully discourteous?   Proceeded to running in the deep water after all four floaters had left. In the end it was a good bit of work for 40 minutes with lots of bursts along the way.

Stats are solid and steady.

August 4th, Saturday

Liberty cross country boys doing the work to make a big move this season.

Video is on loop.  Tap to freeze frame.  Sorry Dylan, you got blocked after a serious ten.

Rode 9.5 miles this morning while boys ran 8/9/10 miles on the trails at Allaire State Park.  My time was 62:15.  It was surprising that the  bike trail was practically deserted on a Saturday morning , but the weather was a constant threat.  Fortunately the rain held off for the hour I was riding.  It was a good workout with some significant hills and some added bursts.  One hour+ in motion is a good thing!

Steady, positive stats.

August 3rd, Friday

Once again in the pool alone at 7 p.m. I swam for 25 minutes and ran for 25 minutes. That amounted to some solid aerobic work with frequent surges both while  swimming and running.

Stats-

Sleep =   8 1/2 hours

Weight  = #154.4

Diet = 10  Yogurt, wheat germ,  nuts, tart cherry juice, oat cereal, six veggie salad, home made Turkey chilli over Brown rice!

Morning indexes good.  Heel remains an unpleasant issue.

August 1st, Wednesday

Once again I was all alone in our beautiful pool on a perfect 78° evening. I swam for 20 minutes inserting bursts of 30 to 35 stroke efforts throughout. I am trying to make my stroke more smooth and more powerful while trying to improve aerobic strength.   I switched to non-impact running for 20 minutes which also included segments of bursts.  I feel as though I have lost some of my aerobic fitness over the past 2 weeks with tapering and recovering from a triathlon.

I have been wearing the foot brace designed to help plantar fasciitis for the past few nights while sleeping. I think I am feeling some improvement. My morning discomfort in the left foot has been dramatically reduced, although the heel pain while walking or running remains.

Stats –

Weight = 155 lb

Morning heart rate equals 54 beats per minute

Diet is very good.  8

Morning discomfort in right foot = 0.    Morning discomfort in left foot = 2/4. Improving!

Sleep equals 8 hours