Archives for January 2007

It is Sunday morning and I am waiting for my opportunity to run. I have 12-14 miles planned so I need to allow 2+ hours plus travel time to a suitable route.

Last night, I began figuring my options. Tom was planning to leave the house at 9:30 am, so that would have meant a 7 am start. It would not have allowed for the “cush time” that I like to have for any possible delays. I am not comfortable running alone in darkness, so an early morning run was crossed off the list of options.

My next window of opportunity is not until 11 am, when YaYa has arranged a play-date at his friend’s house. I need to pick him up on time for his swim lessons at 2:30 pm, but that should give me 3 hours for my run and travel. It won’t allow me enough time for the open space preserve, which is a bummer. I will also have to hit the pavement – which I am a little nervous about.

Nerves aside, I do need to assess whether my feet can tolerate pavement running. If they can’t then there is no sense in me boarding the bus for the half-marathon in San Francisco. If I look at it that way, then having to hit the pavement today, is a good thing.

In the meantime, I am waiting for the time for my pavement tolerance test.

Being able to run before beginning my workday is pretty much unheard of these days. Even if the sun were out at 6 am, I would still be pushed to get BoBo dropped off at the high school on time. Generally, our morning flight pushes back from the house at 7 am sharp. But the kids were out of school today for a teacher “in-service day.” I don’t know what the elementary teachers will be doing, but I expect that the high school teachers are busy updating the final grades as final exams finished up yesterday. That’s of no significance here, except for the fact that it was a childless morning. I was on the highway, heading towards the office, at 6:30 am.

I lumbered up the stairs with my laptop computer, purse, and workout bag. I was already dressed in my running wear and just waiting for the sun to lift it’s head from the pillow and turn on the light for me. This gave me a few minutes to dock my computer, boot it up and check my emails. As the sky was beginning to fill with light, I grabbed my bag and brought it to the locker room. I was out the door to experience the crisp morning chill on a lovely Friday morning.

With 5-6 miles planned, I choose an out and back route that would allow me to decide my mileage for today later in the run. It was too early for decisions bigger than this. I had told Garminia the planned 8:45-9:00/mile pace, but being the Type A person that I am (at least where running is involved), I wanted my usual mile splits. I hadn’t programmed Garminia properly so that I could get this information from her. I also didn’t want to wrestle with the reprogramming required to appease my Type A needs, so we just began the run – like any other day.

What a great way to begin my day. With the sun just rising, I ran out the driveway a few minutes later than I usually leave my driveway at home. I ran past a few people who were arriving for their workday, but I didn’t feel a bit guilty. I felt great.

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Fixing one thing can sometimes lead to another issue. That seems to be the rule where my feet are concerned. I changed my insoles to allow for more pronation. The new insoles caused a blister problem. I changed again, and now it’s something new.

On the way back to my van Saturday, after running my 13 mile trail run, my left foot sort of yelped with each step that I took. The ball of my left foot was sore and my metatarsal bones in both feet seem to feel every step. I was walking on a paved trail, and when I moved to the dirt, the pain eased up.

On Sunday, I spent much of the day in my slippers. They have no support what so ever, but they seem to offer the most comfort these days.

I ran on Monday. I had spent much of the morning with my shoes off because my work shoes just feel wrong. When I ran, my feet actually felt okay after the initial 100 yards. I had a good run with the exception of it being faster than coach had asked me to run.

I had actually told Garminia to keep me at the specified speed interval but she began her hollering when I was still in the parking lot. I wasn’t in the mood for a lot of chatter; I would have brought along myPod if I wanted noise. I immediately told her that I didn’t care how fast I went so that I could keep her quiet. Well, that helped me get out of the parking lot, but she was useless in keeping me at the correct pace. I slowed myself down several times during the run, but in the end I just couldn’t seem to help picking up the pace as I went.

I rested again on Tuesday. I could have cross-trained, but didn’t. Instead, I focused on insuring that I would be run-ready on Wednesday. In addition to leaving a message for the podiatrist, I resumed a few of the measures that helped me with my right foot. I wore my retired running shoes to work, and began ibuprofen and ice baths. I was better at the ice baths than I am now. They are torturous. When it came time to run today, I was okay. The conditions weren’t perfect. I knew that, but they were okay.

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