12 Days to Go, Plantar Faciitis, Help!

About a month ago my heel hurt a bit. When I am training, things always hurt a bit. I didn't think much of it. 

With Donna and my pack

My new boots arrived...identical to the ones I wore in September so I knew they would fit well and be comfortable. The old ones have almost the 500-mile limit on them and I wanted new.

Turtles are good luck and I welcomed him

We did a 6-mile training walk. My heel hurt a lot! I took several days off and just did stretching and icing and took ibuprofen for 10 days. No cure.

Last Thursday I went to a podiatrist. He shot my foot with steroids and said "Go out and train." Being a good patient, I walked 7 miles on Friday with my backpack...although I did lighten it to 12 pounds.

Pygmy rattler on the trail

Lunch in Suwannee was fun after the hike

It was actually a very fun walk. Check more photos of the Adventure Bridge near the end. Russ and I opted to not try it with our packs on and back-tracked out to the road. When I got home, I cancelled our dinner plans took ibuprofen, and went to bed. The longest I've walked since Friday is 2 miles.

Jane shows off the adventure part of the hike

Today I went to a physical therapy/massage/acupuncture/Chinese herbal medicine center. I'm going back. They seemed to have the idea and maybe they can help me heal faster. Afterwards, I went to the Fitness Center and worked out briefly on the elliptical trainer, so as not to pound on my heel. Much harder than walking, so probably good for me. Tomorrow I'll go to yoga, another brief elliptical workout, and another massage.

Any advice. Help!

Practicing my Spanish

I had lunch with friends to practice my Spanish. It was much better than a pilgrim meal. See our Camino Dreaming Blog.

March Flew By and April is Too

 The Sad and the Happy

 

This will be our first Camino when Jake is not waiting for us to return. But his spirit with be with us all the way. Too bad he couldn't come along and be a hospitalero dog. He would have loved all the attention.

 

I became the Past President of Friends...not a bad thing!

We had a good birthday celebration just before Easter.

 We have been training at San Felasco Hammock.

And enjoying lots of friends who are Camino dreaming. See more about it on our Camino Dreaming blog.

We also went live with our website Camino Dreaming.  We posted all the materials we had gathered for our Santa Fe College community Education classes and created a new blog. When we return from this year's Camino, we will roll out the new novel, in episodes.

Second Wind on the Way of St. James is coming in June.

Only a few weeks to learn Spanish, lose weight, and get strong enough to walk 12 miles a day, day after day. Better get busy.