As the miles increase, I’m learning all kinds of new running terms; chaffing, icing, etc.

The icing started about a month ago. January found me with a bit of posterior tibial tendonitus. Little PT, rest, Aleve (not in that order) got me back in the game! Now, the goal is to keep it healthy. Did a little interwebs research and tried icing after long runs. If you can get through the pain of icing, it helps. My foot still twinges after some runs, but (fingers crossed, knock on wood…) determined to get there! Will follow Eldest’s prescription of toughing it out through the first couple minutes (yikes it’s cold) and keep with it.

Yesterdays 8 miler introduced another new experience… chafing. Didn’t put it together after the long run last week, but coming into the last half mile, thought my iPhone band was too tight. Loosened it and didn’t think much about it. This week, different outfit with same problem, earlier. Last 1.5 miles had me feeling that tight iPhone band again. Yesterday was another hot, humid run. Lost about 3 pounds in water during the run, yikes even with water stops. It was really more sunny than super hot – just couldn’t stay in the shade. Along with the iPhone band I wanted to get rid of the RoadID bracelet, watch (and the rest of my clothes :)). I was hot, tired and uncomfortable –  just wanted to done with this 8 miles ;). So I moved the band to my right arm and kept running. Well that arm started hurting too! Thankfully, Porter & a neighbor with a new dog-family-member diverted my attention that last 1/4 mile.

Found the under arm chafing while cooling down. After cooling, icing, stretching and hydrating, hit the shower to head to lunch with a friend and his amazing 93-year-old mom. Neat lady. Oh that shower… if I wasn’t already late for lunch, would have walked right out. Yup, sweaty, yucky just as I was. Alas, needed to get to lunch so toughed it out. Oh my gosh, that stung worst than a bad sun burn… and they were tiny. The good news is that the hot tub (jets on gentle) didn’t hurt a bit :).

Now I’m in chafing-prevention mode. A little polysporin (they came out a couple years ago with a recommendation to try it before neosporin for our antibiotic resistance issues), and a trip to the drug store for some Aquaphor for today’s run then one of the glide products. Will skip the vaseline, read that it stains and not in a pinch.

There are many posts in the interwebs about chafing. (I’ve since learned) that it’s pretty common and easy to avoid. Think once I lose a few more pounds, the bra fat that I think is causing the problem will go away. We’ll see how it goes and in the mean time will work on chafe-avoidance.

Oh yea, back to the lose a few more pounds topic. At this point, my focus is on building strength and eating to stay healthy and strong. The focus isn’t on losing weight but with the increased miles it is a nice side-effect. Two months or so will have me dropping a few more pounds while adding more muscle. Nice, definitely like it.

Any new running experiences this week?