Team World Vision Training - 10 Weeks to Go

image credit: http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc66399.php

This was a good week for training. I put in more miles than I’ve ran in probably a year or more, and my foot has felt almost 100%. I’ve been enjoying coaching the Burnsville Summer Running Program and have got to the point where I can finally keep up with the faster runners. This week I also got to run with a former colleague from the Running Room, and it was nice to catch up with him.

My total mileage for the week was 47 miles. I also did a short hill workout—the fastest workout I’ve done since last fall. On Wednesday, I ran 12 miles in the morning with the Burnsville crew and put in 5 more miles at the Running Room run.

As I’ve continued my training runs, I sometimes think about how fortunate I am to have access to clean water. It’s probably not something people who have clean water give too much thought to. But fundraising for World Vision gives me a different outlook on what I take for granted. When I go on a run, especially a long run, I can carry a water bottle with me. I fill the bottle up from my tap at home without almost any effort. Not only is filling my bottle at home easy, but on many routes I run there are drinking fountains that provide fresh, clean water.

Millions of people around the world do not have the luxury of easy access to clean water. Last week’s stat was that women and children in Africa and Asia walk an average of 3.7 miles every day to provide water for their families—and that doesn’t even mean they’re getting clean water.

This week’s stat:

Over 579 million people are drinking contaminated water.

You can help alleviate the water access crisis. You can help provide live-giving water to communities without basic access to clean water. A donation of $50 brings clean water to one person, but a donation of any amount helps.

Check out my fundraising page: Nathan Leckband - World Vision, or you can donate through my Facebook fundraiser: Nathan’s Fundraiser.

World Vision Training - 11 weeks to go

There’s something special about raising money for a charitable cause as part of marathon, but there are also some difficulties. For some, it may be training for the marathon itself. It might be getting up early to run or getting out the door for a run after an exhausting day at work.

For me, the difficulty is in raising money. I don’t mind creating a Facebook fundraising page, advertising my fundraising page, or writing training plans in exchange for donations to Team World Vision. However, I do not like asking people in person for donations. I did, however, do it once, and was successful. My goal this week is to ask someone else in person to donate.

I’ve got eleven weeks left in my training and fundraising, and I need $495 to reach my goal of $1310 ($50 per mile of the Twin Cities Marathon).

My training this week went well. I ran a total of  42 miles. I’ve been taking every Friday off and sometimes Sundays. During the week I coach the Burnsville High School summer running program. I do all my weekday runs with them, and my pace varies quite a bit depending on which athlete(s) I’m running with. On the weekend I do my long run on Saturday or Sunday, and I sometimes race the Eagan parkrun 5K on Saturday morning (this week was cancelled due to weather). This week’s long run was 12 miles. Next week I’m planning on 15. 

This week I created a Facebook fundraiser and was blown away by the amount of generosity and support I witnessed in the first several days of the fundraiser.

Please consider supporting my fundraising for Team World Vision. I will be sharing a stat every week on how a lack of clean water affects communities. This week’s stat is:

According to multiple sources, women and children in Africa and Asia walk an average of 3.7 miles for water.

You can make a difference. Visit my Team World Vision Fundraising Page or my Facebook Fundraiser to make a donation.

You can also support me in your prayers or in your thoughts.

Foot Fun Part 4

After four months of dealing with a foot injury, which came within a couple years of two other foot injuries, I was referred to a doctor of orthopedics. He was pretty sure of what my injury was all about. He prescribed calf stretches about nine weeks ago, which is where I left off my last post.

It seemed a too simple solution: spending a few minutes each day stretching my calves. I spent a couple weeks just focusing on stretching, then I started some easy runs. I’ve read that static stretching before running can cause injury, so on days I ran I stretched after my runs.

I wasn’t overly optimistic when I returned to running. I wasn’t used getting only one rehab exercise. But, my foot did feel better once I started running.

One strange thing though is that the popping and painful sensation in the bottom of my foot has completely cleared up, but now I occasionally get a strange numb, slightly painful feeling in my toes, usually when I step on a rock or root. My foot is also sore sometimes after a run, but it doesn’t last long.

It’s been over a six weeks since I started running again. I’ve increased my mileage slowly and haven’t done any hard running other than racing 5Ks a few times. So, I’m getting back into the groove with running. I’m training for the Twin Cities Marathon, and although my mileage and number of days running will be significantly lower than most marathons I’ve raced, I still think I can race well.

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To commemorate my 10 year anniversary of my first marathon, I’m raising money for Team World Vision to bring clean water to communities in need. If you’re interested in donating, you can visit my fundraiser page: Nathan Leckband - Team World Vision. I’m also writing running training plans for donations in any amount.

Thanks for reading.

Foot Fun Part 3

A quick recap: Two winters ago, I dealt with peroneal tendonititis in my left ankle and sesamoiditis in my right foot. The ankle had been hurting for longer, but after a long treatment and recovery process, both injuries cleared up by the beginning of summer.

Then, this past winter, the bottom of my right foot started acting up again. My last post left off with my doctor, Dr. Voight, giving her theory of my foot injury along with a treatment plan, but after the treatment my foot hurt just as bad.

So, on with my foot injury saga. I called Dr. Voight and she said that she was stumped. She recommended I see a foot and ankle specialist, so I made an appointment with Summit Orthopedics Dr. Castro.

At my appointment with Dr. Castro, he looked at my MRI and did a quick exam on my lower leg. I told him about my previous two diagnosis, a neuroma or inflammation between my metatarsals. He clicked his tongue and shook his head in what I took to mean he didn’t think it was either of those things.

As he was talking, I remember something Dr. Voight telling me: “You have had some uncommon foot problems.”

Dr. Castro had an interesting diagnosis. He explained to me that there are tendons that run from the calf muscles to the metatarsals, and split at the metatarsals. His theory on my injury made sense to me, but not enough sense that I could explain it succinctly. But what he did say is part of the problem was that I had extremely tight calves, I believe it was along the lines of: “You have the tightest calves I’ve ever seen.”

The only thing he prescribed were calf stretches. When I started doing the stretches, I noticed he was right—my calves were tight. I decided to take another two weeks off of running and focus on loosening up my calf muscles. That was eight weeks ago... I’ll let you know how it turned out.

Foot Fun Part 2

I wasn't planning on being injured this winter. I was conservative with my mileage, I was keeping up with my core workouts, and I wasn't doing too many intense workouts, but, alas, injured I became. 

In my previous post I wrote about an ankle injury that cleared up with treatment. At the same time, I was also dealing with an injury on the other foot. I saw Dr. Voight, the fantastic sports medicine doctor, who along with diagnosing my ankle injury, also diagnosed my foot with sesamoiditis. She prescribed a pad to relieve the pressure, and after a few months, the pain cleared up.

By summer I was healthy and running well, and was feeling good going into the winter.

The winter had been going well. I'd competed several long runs of 15+ miles, and I'd been running pain-free on all my runs besides some little twinges in the foot that was injured last season.

Then, in February at our local weekly 5K, I ran hard on a course covered in snow. After the race, I was planning on putting in a few more miles, but my foot started hurting enough that I decided to bag the run.

I stopped running on icy and snowy surfaces and went to all track and treadmill running, and things seemed to be going fine. Then my foot started to hurt on the track, so I went to exclusively treadmill running. For a couple weeks I was running on the treadmill without any pain, but then eight miles into what I wanted to be a longer run, my foot acted up again, and this time it was the most painful it'd been since that 5K.

I tried again the next day, and my foot acted up after only twenty minutes.

After taking a couple weeks off from running without my foot feeling any better (in fact, it started to feel worse, popping and hurting when I walked in the house barefoot, which led me to wear shoes indoors), I made an appointment with another another doctor. Dr. Voight wasn’t available, so I tried someone else who worked with athletes.

After a cortisone shot for what the doctor thought might be a neuroma, my foot still wasn’t any better—if anything it was worse. 

So, I made an appointment with Dr. Voight. I had to wait a little longer to see her, but I figured it’d be my best shot.

Dr. Voight decided an MRI would be best as she couldn’t figure out what was going on with an exam. 

After the MRI I saw her again, and she had an idea as to what ails my foot. “It looks like some inflammation on the second metatarsal,” she said.

So, she prescribed metatarsal pads, naproxen, toe spacers, and no running for two weeks.

It turned out that these things didn’t help either. At that point, it had been over six weeks since I’d run at all, and the painful popping sensation in my foot continued to bother me.

To be continued...