So my fab new Mizunos are evil torture devices in disguise, but I’m hoping only temporarily. What happened is this:

The first time I wore them was for a speed session last week, as I blogged about. Loved them, adored them, felt light, etc. The next morning I experienced something I’d never felt before, I get out of bed and my left foot is cramped on the outside from heel to pinky toe, and I’m hobbling! I’d read that PF appears in the mornings, but this wasn’t the center or inside of my foot and since it quickly disappeared, I figured it was just some fleeting weirdness.

Now, the week before I got my new shoes (Brooks Adrenalines and Mizuno Inspires), I had a twingy tendon on my right ankle for a couple days that had come about while overstretching (hyper-pointing my toes) in bed one morning, so I’d been “checking” the right ankle by stretching my left foot incessantly to compare. Dumb.

Sunday is the mile time-trial and I wear my speedy Mizunos for the second time – no problems. Next morning (yesterday), I splay my left toes in bed (there I go stretching again!) and feel a zing of pain. Like I pulled something, but again, it goes away quickly so I forget about it.

Cut to my afternoon run in my Adrenalines – feel great, nothing hurts, wasn’t even thinking about it. Then I get home and while I have my running socks on, I try on the left Mizuno because it’s been eating the lower-cut socks, so maybe the higher sock will stay put…

I slide my foot into the shoe and OOWWEEEE! Out of nowhere, the outside edge of my foot is in huge pain, centralized at the heel. But this time it doesn’t go away, it hurts the rest of the day into the night and this morning, is still tender. Oh no.

What I deduce about the Mizunos is that it has a more negative heel, reminiscent of the Earth Shoes I had when I was 13 (when I made my Dad drive me to Tulsa specifically to get a pair since Fayetteville, Arkansas wasn’t a hotbed of fashion at the time). That, or the fact that it’s not as built-up as my Asics or Brooks, makes it feel negative. Anyway, it hurt.

So all day yesterday, I’m online trying to figure out what it is I’ve done or am afflicted with and don’t see anything that fits, since the Plantar Fascia is centralized and nothing seems to be on the outside of the foot. Then voila! This morning I finally come upon an illustration of the plantar nerves and the lateral one goes on the side from heel to pinky toe. Bingo.

My lesson learned: never introduce a new pair of shoes with speedwork and a race first thing. And don’t stretch your feet like a maniac when determining the status of an injury, you might just create one on the opposing foot.

To wrap up this long, boring diatribe, here I am taking an unwanted day off and hoping with everything I got that this isn’t my first “real” injury. Sigh.

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