Minneapolis, Minimal Running, and an Injury

Last I wrote, I had just finished 500 miles. A day or so after that I was off to Minneapolis to speak at the Flashbelt conference. I knew that at least a few people at the conference were runners, so I sent out the word to organize a group run. I wasn’t sure how many would show up for a 7:00 a.m. run, but if nothing else, I had planned to run with Jeni, who I’ve known for several months on DailyMile.com, a MN native. As it turned out we had 5 runners, plus 2 who biked along with us. Jeni took us down along the Mississippi River a couple of miles or so, across and back partway on the other side, for just over four and a half miles. It was great.

Here’s Jeni and I on the bridge on the way back:

And me with the rest of the runners…

The next day I went out again, unfortunately alone. Did approximately the same route. Running with the group was awesome, but it was also nice to take in the scenery in solitude.

The last full day I was there I went for a walk down to a mountaineering shop a couple of blocks from the hotel. I noticed they had Vibram Five Fingers. I’ve been wanting to try them out for a while, but wanted to wait until my last two races were done. So on a whim I got fitted for a pair. The next day I got up early and went out for a mile and a half in them. I knew better than to do too much all at once. Didn’t feel bad, a bit of tightness in my calves later, but not bad. By noon I was in the air on my way back home.

I got back home Thursday. Friday I went out for a five miler in my regular shoes. It was a pretty fast one – almost 5K pace for the first four miles. I wound up burning out after that and had to walk a bit and came home with just 4.75. The next day, Saturday, I did a 2 miler in the VFFs. When I got back, I spent the next several hours doing heavy duty yard work, including carrying 16x16x2 inch concrete tiles from the front of the house, up the steps and into the back yard, leveling the ground and putting them in place.

Somewhere between the really fast run on Friday, the 2 mile VFF run, and the heavy lifting, I did some damage. Sunday I went for a 3 miler in the VFFs and had a really sharp pain deep in the right glute. Probably the piriformis muscle. But after about a mile into the run it eased up a bit. More lifting and carrying on Sunday.

It was pretty painful on Monday, but I took a day off running and stretched and iced.  Tuesday I went out for what planned to be 5 miles, but wound up in such pain that I had to stop and walk, limping for several minutes. Came home with only three.

So yes, an official injury I think. I took the next two days off, stretched, foam rolled, and iced. Friday I tentatively went out for a nice slow one. The rest, ice, stretching, rolling had apparently done its job. I took home 4 miles with some sensation back there, but no pain. Over the weekend I did another 6 and 8, feeling pretty good. So as injuries go, I think I got off pretty easy.

But now I’m pretty skittish about the VFFs. I’m pretty sure the injury was not related to them, but it’s hard not to connect them. My guess is it had a lot more to do with the fast run and the heavy lifting and carrying two days straight. At any rate, there’s still some very minor discomfort back there. So I’m going to wait until it feels 100% before I go back on the minimal shoes again.