My first experiment in rehabilitation began last week with pondering ways to avoid putting upward pressure on my forefoot when the toes are extended up on toe off. At least for the time being, I think this will be helpful when walking around without the boot and hopefully transitioning back to flexible and low to the ground shoes. After trying on a few shoes at the Indiana Running Company and testing various soles for stiffness, I found the two "stiffest" shoes that seemed to evenly distribute load on the metatarsals heads and felt great to walk around in. The first was the Saucony Perigrine (trail shoe), which had the stiffness and almost perfectly shaped footbed I was looking for. The other, was quite frankly a huge shock. The Newton "Sir Isaac" trainer was flawless for my purpose. My foot could roll off the front without too much of a forefoot bend, and the shoe was certainly stiff enough.
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| Newton "Sir Isaac" Trainer |
This wasn't what I hoped to find out, as a I have long (and after a road test of 9 miles in a pair) harbored a dislike for the Newton shoes and sort of mocked the shoe in my own mind as being ridiculous both in design and price. Function aside, I have to admit the shoe seems pretty well constructed and pretty much bomb proof. It's no wonder people claim to easily get 1000+ miles out of these. I'm still intent on transitioning out of these as soon as possible but am going to have to give a little more respect to the "newton nerds" from here on out.
My acclimation to weight bearing activity so far has been reasonable. Since last week, my training has looked like this:
Wednesday
2 - 3 miles of walking around in the Newtons (calf muscles were pretty much wrecked after this but probably a good exercise in strengthening)
Thursday
3 x 20 Individual Leg Extensions
2 x 10 Individual Leg Calf Raise Machine
3 x 15 Individual Standing Calf Raises
3 x 20 Side and Reverse / Front Hip Extensions w/ resistance using pulley
3 x 10 One Legged Squats (standing on box)
.25 miles of running
30 minutes on Stairmaster (up to 140 stairs per minute pace till almost failure)
Friday
3 x 8 One Legged Deadlift
3 x 10 Captain's Chair leg raises (core)
3 x 20 Crunch while balanced on exercise ball (core)
45 minutes on home spin bike, replaced pedal cages with SPD pedals first (much better!)
Saturday
I finally decided it was time to get a comfortable and properly fitting pair of cycling road shoes. I found the most well fitting pair I have ever tried on, luckily on sale at Bikesmiths, which was the SiDi Zeta. I immediately followed this with a group ride with real cyclists, predictably ending in a drop at 25 miles and another 24 tired miles riding back into town with my friend Ryan for 49 miles on the day. My legs were completely trashed. The shoes were fantastic, my first real ride on a bike in a while was not.
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| SiDi "Zeta" Road Shoe |
Sunday
1 mile walk in the Newtons
Monday
3 x 8 One Legged Deadlift
0.5 miles run in Newtons (till tendons all across top of my forefoot and toes hurt too much)
10 minutes on Stairmaster
22 miles cycling
This was a good few days overall, and promising for the prospects of recovery. I continue to take an anti-inflammatory each day and have been repeating an ice to scalding hot contrast foot bath daily with massage and some rolling of the foot on a golf ball.
I'm trying to pay extra attention to balance and individual leg exercises for the time being, with the hopes of eliminating the stabilizer and strength discrepancies between my left and right legs as soon as possible. My two favorites at the moment are the one legged squat, and the one legged deadlift.
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| 1 Legged Squat |
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| 1 Legged Dead Lift |
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