40% Of The Way There

I'm in the middle of my work's "Walking to Cooperstown" challenge, and currently my team of 10 people has traveled 580 miles in three weeks, which is about 40% of the way there. We are in 2nd place by only 4 or 5 miles. Our team name is Dream Team, and we have several runners on our team, including one who was a division one track athlete and triathlete.

The second week of the contest, our strongest team member (the triathlete) had a major bike accident while on a training ride on the highway. He had a huge gash on his head, a black eye, and broke something in his lower back. A motorist passing by saw him flip over his handle bars, stopped to help and called the ambulance. So, his mileage contribution to the team for our 2nd week was only 4 miles. Amazingly enough, a week later he was out running again. This is a guy that is really fit. He placed first in his age group at a mini triathlon a couple months ago, and was 8th overall.

The contest goal was to encourage each team member to hit 10 miles a week. My personal goal is 20 miles, which isn't much but since I'm in recovery/maintenance mode it is enough. I ran the first couple weeks, but because I want to aid my foot in healing, last week I decided to log all my miles by either walking or doing the elliptical. So far, so good, and I have been able to hit the 20 mile mark (22 last week).

I am still continuing with sticking my foot in an ice bath a couple times a day, rolling my heel on a golf ball, and wearing the night sock. The night sock by the way, looks like this:

The sock looks really crazy and it feels kind of weird to wear that thing in bed, but I've gotten used to it. My wife calls it an "elf sock." The idea is that it keeps your foot in a flexed position while you sleep, and gently stretches the plantar fascia tissue. It definitely has reduced the pain that I feel in the morning, and I am hoping that it will speed up recovery time as well. I'm still doubtful that I'll be healed in time for the local half marathon in September that I was eyeing, but there is another local one in October that I potentially could be ready for, but I don't want to push it either.

By the way, I'm really liking these New Balance shoes I've been testing. Check out the laces on them. They are bubbled. Kind of cool. I've never seen laces like these, but can only assume that they help the laces to keep from coming untied. Or maybe it's just for fashion.