12.8.08

My legs were a little sore today from the run yesterday. Yes, only a little. I didn't quite stretch as much as I wanted to last night, but I think the ice bath would have given a tiny bit of improvement on the soreness. So I thought today I would try for a normal medium-long run and see where things went. It was an easy enough run. The hardest part is just being out there. I love running, don't get me wrong, but I don't exactly have a lot of variety to my 3 courses, two of which basically repeat themselves over and over. Ipod helps me stay motivated, but I wish I had wide open areas where I could just run through the woods or like a huge golf course would be nice.

The legs weren't all that sore, but they were tired. Counting down laps I only struggled toward the last few of them, and even then it wasn't like I was dying. I still had enough at the end for a nice half mile sprint or so which felt really good. The legs have turned over nicely for me today and yesterday, but I think it's just because I was only wearing shorts. The sweatpants tend to restrict movement, especially a higher knee lift which is basically where most speed comes from. Other than the legs being a bit tired the run was easy and I felt really good afterwards. All I keep thinking is that if I can run a half marathon any given day, that should mean I could run a decent marathon right? I don't know. It's a loooong way and only gets tougher the farther you get.

Tomorrow I'm planning hills at home, but I would rather do them Wednesday. I'll have to see if we are still going to the church thing, if not I may move it. I have work tomorrow too, so it looks like I'll be doing hills in the darkness.

3:45 pm. soccer complex. 47 degrees 5mph wind.
1:45:07, gm 700

12.7.08

Long run. Did an hour at the park on mostly grass, got a sip of gatorade and headed off into the wilds. Did my normal route out middlebrook, down cedar bluff, through the major hills subdivision, then out to pilot and walmart, through the greenway and then ran it back to the park where I did a modified shorter loop. Legs were pretty trashed and hurting after this run. I knew it was going to be tough when I made it to the subdivision and hit that first hill. I was kind of like "uh oh, that one took me down a notch". But I just kept going and going. By two and half hours my legs were starting to feel some major effects from the hills. An achiness that just seems to hurt down to the bone. I stayed as relaxed as possible, but my lower back was pretty bad too. I think I was looking down too much, mostly to avoid looking at the lights on passing cars. I had to stop a few times for traffic, but not more than a minute or wherabouts so it wasn't too bad. Last 50 minutes of this run as I said was very tough. I was breathing really good, but the legs were pretty shot. It is NOT flat and I think there are just too many hills to really not have dead legs. All the same it's good training.

I had a small bite of laraba bar sometime around 2.5 hours, but I did notice that around 3 hours the stomach was growling, so I may need to eat a little more and probably a little earlier as well. I also only had that one drink at one hour. I wish I could have some sort of water pack I could carry along. I don't like bottles. They slosh and I think it would either throw my balance off or cause me to run a little different. My hip still hurts from time to time. Not in a big way, but I don't want anything to worsen it. I think it is a nerve damage or something because it really hasn't gone away after like 9 months or something crazy like that. The good part is it only "hurts" sometimes. If I press on it there is pain, but running walking are virtually free of pain so I just ignore it. So a good start to the week. Should be having some great numbers for December, hopefully up around 400 miles this month if I get in all my other long runs.

Just want to repeat that the legs were totally shot after this run, mostly the calves and hams. I could barely walk and it hurt to just stand there. I opted out of the ice bath and am going to try some stretching tonight and see if there is any difference. Normally with the ice I can run the next day so we'll see what happens.

2:50 pm. ball camp/middlebrook. 34 sunny to 31 at sunset.
3:21:30, gm 687

12.6.08

A nice run today. I had lots of options as I have Monday off, so I could sort of move runs around a lot more. I got up later so that ruled out a double, and I didn't really feel a long run today. So I decided to go for my now usual 13 miler. It went well. I listened to a podcast, the only bad part was it wasn't long enough and I didn't have it as part of a playlist so I actually listened to two and half times through. Somehow it kind of made the run easier as I felt like I was starting over again and again and the miles went by fast enough.

Only one other walker was at the complex today. Soon there will be no friends to run by though. Legs were dragging a little today actually and at first I thought I might have to cut the run a bit short. But by the time I started getting into a nice easy groove things started rolling and I was looking forward to the next lap. That's kind of been my thing at the complex, is looking forward to the next lap instead of dreading it. Psychologically it has helped me to get through the runs, so take a note all those who are just starting to run. Running really is 90% mental, 10% physical.

April was sick today so we aren't going to the Christmas tree play. I actually wanted to go to it because the next one I've been to twice and it's the same each year. I doubt we'll be lucky enough to get out of that one : )

3:45 pm. soccer complex. 32 degrees overcast.
1:46:23, gm 662

12.5.08

A run around the hood tonight. Felt really good actually, I just didn't feel like being out in the dark all night, probably could have stayed out another half hour or so, but April was brining home dinner so I decided that was a bad idea. Still a good 9 miles so tomorrow I'll only need like 11-12 to get up near 85 miles.... Seems kind of crazy to be running that after the past few weeks, but it's actually been really easy to bounce back from the injury and sickness. Foot is doing much better. I had that scare a few days back, but since then I've felt nothing other than a twinge or two at work. So it's definitely not 100% or anything, but still good enough to do some quality hills.

I plan to get at least 12 in tomorrow, but I'd rather do two runs. It just depends on if I can run in the morning. April's car sounds like it's falling apart, so we'll have to have it worked on tomorrow. The guys at worked looked at it today, and it is definitely something to do with the belt or alternator making some kind of grinding sound- not good. I don't know because I'm not a car-guy. Anyway that will probably take the morning, so I'm planning 12 before we go to the Living Christmas Tree! whoooo. Yeah I'm not really excited about it, but it's just one of those things you have to do, only I'll be doing it again next week somewhere else, ach. See you tomorrow.

7:40 pm. home. 30 degrees (undershirt, turtleneck, jacket, sweatpants, headband, 2 gloves).
1:12:41, gm 649

12.4.08

Morning run in light rain. Felt alright on this one, but definitely wanted to end early. It was pretty strong rain at first, but slowly died down which was nice. Sweatpants were a bad choice on this one as they got wet and eventually weighed about 10 pounds and started falling down a bit. Kind of a slower run, but definitely just felt good to be out in the morning. It was nice to actually get up this morning. I feel a lot better about the day already because I already have about half of my running done.

6:15 am. home. 41 light rain.
49:00, gm 631

Second run tonight. Not much better than this morning. I was hungry and felt weak. Legs were kind of shaky because of it, and I had a strong urge to quit from 20 minutes clear up to about an hour into the run. Doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're stomach feels empty and legs are shaking it's hard to not veer off the path back to the car. It was nice not running in the rain, that's for sure. Sweatpants are pretty much my new best friend. My calves and quads thank you sweaties, for keeping them nice and warm.

Pace seems to be falling off a bit, but that's expected with the mileage increase again. I had a big dropoff because of the foot, so I'm trying to get back near the 100 miles/week range again. It won't be hard to do if I run twice a day. It was awesome to do that today, but because April had to work over 15 minutes I turned out getting home from my night run about the same time as usual - 7:30. But I would have been out till after 8:00 otherwise, so that's a huge difference. I like running twice a day, but obviously there are some fuel issues that need to be taken care of as I was so weak on the second run. The thing is I actually ate More than usual today, a banana for breakfast - which i never usually eat, as well as McDonald's as a treat, normal lunch, then some laraba bar just before the run (I was already hungry before it even started). So I think I may need to take some granola bar or something to eat while at work late in the afternoon. I know I always talk about murals and never get it going, but I'm getting kind of desperate at this point. 8am getting in, 5pm getting off work stuff is crappy once you factor in traffic and breakfast and all the other jazz it leaves like 10 minutes of daylight. Gah, but anyway I hope something works out soon so I can feel normal and not like I'm just running in perpetual darkness.

well enough rant for the day. I am excited that the foot is feeling normal again, not really ready to test any other shoes for a few weeks, but at least I can run without pain. Fitness should be increasing a lot with starting hills, then I'll be ready for repeats and all that track stuff I haven't really gotten into since high school. If I can get into good track shape, I'm sure that will totally blast my longer distance paces up too. Looking forward to that.

6:15 pm. soccer complex. 37 degrees.
1:12:02, gm 640

12.3.08

Pretty decent day today actually. I got to do something other than stuff envelopes, which was a nice change, but completely stressful. I got to load the mailing machine with about 50,000 pieces of mail. There is a machine that prints all the addresses. It estimates the time, when I started on it the timer was at 1 hour 30 minutes...So yeah I had to cut open boxes, get the mail ready to load, and break down the boxes, while checking for backwards envelopes and making sure non get stuck in the belt and making sure to listen to Loy so I could stop the feeder if she needed. So yeah, not exactly sitting around. It was fun, but I was right by a window and the sun was beating down on me so I was hot. It is usually cold in there so I was dressed warm and couldn't really avoid it. Other than that it was kind of fun keeping up with the machine and juggling everything else.

Tonight was another good run. No foot pain at work today, and the same for the run tonight. Summation: nike frees, while there is a good chance they didn't cause the initial injury, didn't provide enough cushion to injured area thereby re-aggravating said injury :-) So yeah I wore them one day, the next day foot hurt. Switched shoes and now no pain again.... All learning experiences aside, I'm just happy to be able to run without pain. That is the main thing - staying healthy or at least running pain-free.

It was warmer today, was about 50 when i got to the soccer complex, but cooled down with the sunset. The only times I felt cold was when running into the wind on the last few laps. I'd say the wind was around 10 mph and my longsleeve doesn't exactly provide a lot of breakage for the wind. But it was a really good run. The laps went by fast and I was only breathing hard a few times on the inclines. Yesterday's hills didn't really seem to do much as I thought and there was only the very faintest of soreness in my hams during the run. The declines are the worst part of the run at the soccer complex, mostly because I'm putting pressure on my injured foot and theres really no way to avoid it. Going slower seems to make it even worse, so it's almost a kamikaze like trip down the hills.

So as long as I keep wearing good cushioned shoes, or at least not minimalist shoes I think the injury will go away. All the same I've ran 3 days straight of 13 miles, so there's nothing at all to complain about. I've been wanting to split my runs up, but I just can't drag myself up in the morning. I woke up at 4 am this morning and just turned the alarm clock forward and went back to sleep, haha. So yeah I'm not sure what motivation I need to wake up, but hopefully I can just do it. Splitting my runs up will not only give me more time running, but more time at night to eat, work on things, and still have time to relax. At this point I get home at 7:30, eat (if April cooks otherwise it takes another half hour) till 8, watch tv for an hour, do extra stretches and drills, blog, then start winding down to go sleep at 10:30-11. Mostly I'm just not motivated to do "work". I'll try anyway though.

5:35. soccer complex. 46 degrees 10mph wind (longsleeve, undershirt, shorts, gloves)
1:45:03, gm 623

12.2.08

Eh. Foot is bothersome again. But the good news is that the run went well. Another good amount of time spent outdoors. It was cold tonight, but not bad. Same deal as yesterday, only this time I had a turtleneck under my longsleeve. I've also been wearing sweatpants over my shorts. It's worked out well. They are older so they are thin and are really loose so not too restricting. It's nice not having frozen legs.

So I ran in the neighborhood tonight. Other than the traffic it was great, ....well and the foot stuff. Breathing was good. I also decided to do some hills. These actually made the foot feel better as I was on my toes more. I did one for each loop around the neighborhood. I originally thought three would be good. I was going up them at a good clip, but not sprinting or anything crazy. The first two felt good, the third was pretty tough, and the fourth was pretty sad, but definitely doable. Four loops around the hood actually wasn't that boring. It was certainly much better than 13 around the soccer complex.

So I seem to be back on track fitness wise. Unfortunately the foot doesn't want to cooperate. I really thought it was healed up, but apparently the nike frees were just too thin to provide enough cushion. I kind of regret wearing them, but you live and you learn. Another day of work tomorrow, but we are almost finished with the job so I might have the rest of week off. Who knows though they might find something else for me to do. In the meantime I'm going to try to get up early and run, but no guarantees. I am definitely not a morning person, and with Mercedes getting me up the past two days at 3 am, I'm kind of lacking in the full night of sleep department. Ok, update more tomorrow.

5:40 pm. home +hills. 34 degrees.
1:46:18, gm 610

12.1.08

One month left this year. Just crazy. Time seems to fly when you've recorded it. Anyway...things were great till this afternoon when my foot started hurting a bit at work. Crap. So yeah the pain was back, but at least it wasn't like full out. I think it may be the shoes. Yeah they are kiiiind of worn out..... if by 'kind of' I mean totally. So I'll have to switch back to the moires, since yesterday I wore the frees and today there is pain I think it's fair to assume they are connected.

But I was determined to run, I would even go as far as to say I was craving a good long run. So tonight I just kept going through the pain and ran. It was great. I felt good through the whole run. I was happy to be running, even though on a gimpy foot, at least it wasn't raining or sleeting.

5:40 pm. soccer complex. 36 (28 w/windchill) degrees.
1:45:00, bf 597

posting everyday?

Well I've looked around the innernets a bit and I've seen lots of abandoned blogs or blogs of doom that have only a few posts a year. Having had a few of these, I know that it is quite an easy thing to do, so I'm not condemning anyone. Since I've been getting more serious about my training, I've found that my blog is another tool, like running shoes for my mind. It keeps me motivated because I can go back to any given day and see how I felt, what was going on, and how the training went - for the most part. It has definitely gotten easier to post a blog for some reason. I'm not sure exactly why.

Posting everyday may seem like a crazy or even absurd thing to do. What could I possibly have to say about running each day? Well honestly it's been super easy to find things to write about, and when theres nothing interesting in running I can post something else like how I feel or some thoughts that I've had. I like posting everyday because this is basically my daily training journal. So i like to stay consistent in the blog, just as I do in my daily running. Pretty simple idea I suppose, but it is definitely working for me. I do usually try to keep it short just to sort of cut the fat and get to the point, so I hope that has helped with the content a bit.

There is also some kind of accountability to the blog. In essence a blog is nothing. It barely qualifies as existence because it is just out there in cyberspace somewhere floating around. Amazing how something intangible can affect a real person, but it does, at least for me anyway. I don't think it's really about being accountable to "readers" of the blog either. I just post what I think and feel and if someone likes it then that is awesome, and if they don't that is perfectly fine too. So I guess there are many layers and mystique to the blog when you get down to it, but I will continue to be as consistent as I possibly can for myself and my running first, and hopefully readers will enjoy and not get too bored with my daily commentaries :-)

11.30.08

Well things didn't really go as planned today. It was supposed to quit raining, but it never did, at least through the afternoon when it was supposed to be "partly cloudy" around 5. Finally around 3:30 it was somewhat not raining much and so I figured I might be able to get a 2 hour run in. It seemed like everything was going great. I got out to the soccer complex and was running really well. There were some puddles to dodge, but I could see the sun in the distance with an open spot with no clouds. To the east I could see the dark masses of cloud moving away and I was feeling pretty good about that. Then about an hour into the run I noticed more dark masses moving in again from the west, blotting out the sun. It got dark and then there was a sprinkle. No biggie, it probably wouldn't rain. Then another, and within about 10 seconds it was a total downpour. Rain was filling the sky and I could barely see where I was going and had to use my hand as a sort of hat to shield my eyes so I could run.

After about five minutes of this, with no signs of stopping I was nearly back to the car. I decided to just call it a day. I was completely dripping wet and my shoes, shorts, and longsleeve were soaked through. So not exactly a long run by any means. In fact that barely qualifies as a short run. I guess it's better than nothing though. I wore my nike frees and it felt really good to wear them, definitely could tell a difference in speed or at least perceived speed. NO signs of injury remain in the foot!

3:45 pm. soccer complex. 43 degrees, cloudy, then downpour.
1:05:34, bf 584

11.29.08

Rainy day today and I got absolutely nothing done running wise. We went out with friends later and didn't have enough time to run. It was fun to hang out though. I hate missing training, but in a way it's good to have a day off every now and then. Hopefully tomorrow it isn't too rainy.

11.28.08

Lazy day. I slept a lot, I think it was the turkey leftovers... Anyway the run went great. It was really warm today, close to 60 so it was just about perfect for running. I went to the soccer complex and it went really well. The run felt kind of hard for the first 30 minutes or so, but after that I was relaxed and smoking some laps. A guy that I had been running by was like "one more lap!" I actually had two more laps, but I just waved and smiled.

This run really felt great though. I was thinking about how it must feel to be an elite. I mean I wonder how their 4:30 miles feel when they are running. I don't even think I can move legs that fast, let alone run a full marathon near that pace. It's just craziness when you think about stuff like that. Maybe one day I'll be there, but I don't see it in the near future. Hopefully I will be, but a lot of things would have to work out perfectly to achieve it.

So the foot was completely fine today. I can still sense a little bit of pressure where it isn't completely healed, but only when I'm walking with shoes on. Other than that there was absolutely zero pain. I'm excited to be able to get back into my normal training again. I was doing really great before it got hurt, and I plan on getting the miles back up there after that low week of just 16 miles. I'm not sure when hills are going to play their part, but it will definitely be soon. I basically plan on doing speed work for at least 2.5 months before the marathon, so I'll probably be starting with hills as soon as there are no niggles left in the foot. More tomorrow.

4:30 pm. soccer complex. 53 degrees.
1:22:45, gm 576

11.27.08

Well I had planned to get up early this morning, but it didn't happen. I ended up running before noon. It was a GREAT run. Not because it felt great, but because my foot felt great! Whoooo, I seem to be on the mend. There was literally no pain. It actually was a bad thing because I took off the first three miles and pretty much killed myself. By 25 minutes I was considering quitting the run early. I told April that when I got home and she didn't really understand. "how can you run for 3 hours and not get tired, that's not like you", just goes to show what pacing does for you.

So the run was quite hard. Partially because of the pace, partially because of the time of day, and of course because of all the days off. Luckily around 45 minutes in or so I settled down a bit and started feeling okay enough to think about finishing the run. I also had to burn some rubber because we had to be at April's parents at 12:30. We were a little late to say the least.

Thanksgiving was good. I ate a little more than usual and we still haven't had dinner so I don't know what we'll do for that, probably leftovers. It was good to be with family, but by the time we made it to the second one I was tired and both April and I passed out on the couch. Turkey day is officially over. I'm not going shopping tomorrow for two reasons. For one I have no money, and for two people are crazy. We got up early a few years ago at like 3 or something and still were just at the middle of the line. Maybe if I had camping gear I'd just camp out there all night by a warm portable heater, but in the end it's just not worth the few dollars you end up saving. Happy Thanksgiving!

11:15 am. home. 46 degrees sunny.
1:02:02, gm 566

11.26.08

update in a min, fingers to frozen to tipe.

Alright, all is good now. Food in the belly and showered. Today was a kind of madness sort of day. Work was kind of insane, with three different jobs needing to be mailed out, and us not knowing that two of them hadn't even really been worked on till after lunch. Lunch was nice by the way. The bosses had it catered. There was meatloaf and colored greens and cheesy potatoes and all the good desserts. I didn't over eat, although I probably should have judging by how hungry I was at the end of this run, my stomach was growling so loud I felt my calves jiggle.

So we finally get off work and get home. I make my way to the park with my shorts and t-shirt covered by a longsleeve, as well as my trusty headband which I love. Just getting into the car is no fun. I'm not Donald Trump, and cannot afford self-warming seats, so I have to just shiver a bit as I drive the one or two miles down to the park. Getting out I make sure I have my keys and then it's time to take a few steps and click the old center button on the ipod. And the first few steps are normally the worst. The wind starts zapping into the exposed legs and for a second I wonder why in the heck I don't have something better. Then I make it into the grassy area and before I know it I totally don't notice I have shorts on and I'm just running.

Today I listened to Steve, over at steverunner.com. I enjoy his podcasts and you can download them through itunes or from his website. He's a great person. I don't know him, but in a way I really do. Podcasts are funny that way in that even though he's never met me, and likely never will, I know him. I know his personality, his likes, dislikes, and his opinions on a variety of topics such as wine, youthful exploits, and of course his philosophy on running. Today's episode was an older one, but it was about CPR. He gave some really good info. I'm always impressed with the quality of his cast, and if you ever have some spare time you should totally check it out.

So by the time that was over I only had five minutes or so left to go. The foot, by the way, was much better today. Definitely some healing going on, although it's still tender and probably needs more rest than I'm going to accommodate to it. It was very minimal, and only by mile 8 or so did I significantly notice any pain. Breathing wise the run was good. I can definitely tell I've lost a touch of fitness from the days off. On the same token I feel like if I didn't have this nagging ankle/foot pain that I could go much farther than what I am.

So things are looking good. I'm glad I can run. I also have found the BLESSING I've been looking for. Since I've been taking "rest" days, I've made more time to do calf raises, sittups, pushups, leglifts, and other various exercises. I have done that for 3 days straight, and without the injury I don't think that would have happened. I'm kind of glad it happened as I had been neglecting those areas and I said I was going to work on them. So thank you injury for giving me that opportunity.

5:45 pm. ball camp. 40 degrees
1:15:03, gm 558

11.25.08

Interesting day. When I first started walking around this morning I thought I was healed!, as my foot didn't hurt. But after walking around work for a while, it definitely wasn't the case. Still the pain isn't so bad as it was. I decided to do another test run tonight. It was dark by the time I got home, but I didn't care and went to the park anyway. The park is dangerous. The sidewalk is cracked in many places, there are low hanging ropes and fences and plenty of holes to fall in or trip over. Either way I kept my strides short.

At first it seemed like I had forgotten how to run. I mean I was doing it, but I really had to think about it. Kind of weird. But that wore off after a few minutes and before I knew it I was heading around the five or six soccerfields that are next to each other at the back of the park. There is a gate that separates this area from the rest of the park, which has a small drive with parking inbetween, and two more soccerfields with a "track" paved around those. It is a good place to run because the grass is mostly flat, and of course soft turf is great for a foot injury like the one I have. It must be some sort of sprain? I'm still not sure how it happened. I must have rolled it or stumbled or something and forgotten, but I'm still clueless as to what I did on that treadmill to create this nagging pain.

Last night I did some calf raises, the whole deal and I think that helped somehow. It's great to be able to do that, because I'm building strength in my calves, and since I'm on my toes there is no risk of hurting the injured area. For the majority of the run, my foot pain wasn't even noticeable. But by the end I started to feel it, especially when I got off the soccerfields and back onto the pavement. Still, it wasn't bad at all. The only reason I don't want to run on it is just more of a precaution so I don't further or prolong the injury. Otherwise I'm perfectly capable of running on it.

So I'm just happy to get a run in. It felt great and I think as I don't push too early, the foot will heal to %100 and I'll be ready to get back into full training. My next goal is one hill workout every week, and considering where I've been doing my long runs, I think I'll be ready for it.

5:45 pm. ball camp park. 40 degrees
1:13:00, gm 549

11.24.08

Well same old news again. The foot still hurts to walk on. The only good part about it is that I can still do things on my toes. Landing on the heel/midfoot is what causes the pain. So tonight I did some jump-rope without any pain at all. I've also been doing calf raises, wall sits, and crunches. I'm still kind of out of it though. I miss running every day. I have had a headache since about 3 (it's 11 now) and I think it's because I haven't had my daily oxygen uptake. Anyway I guess core work will have to suffice for now.

On another note I may have some mural stuff to work on. I'm not getting my hopes up, but I could have a really good lead into some present and future jobs. I'll keep you posted.

11.23.08

Foot didn't feel much better today. I figured I might as well take days off now if I'm going to have to, so that way I can get back to serious running sooner. A few miles here and there at this point I'm not sure is going to help recovery or fitness much. Now a long run today would have been beneficial fitness wise, but who knows how detrimental on the injury side. I'm just going to do the minimum to keep my fitness up for now. Then once the foot isn't hurting so much I'll be able to add miles. Until then I'm going to go hardcore on sittups/core work.

11.22.08

Another day at work, ugh on Saturday. At least we got out early around 4, so I actually got to run in the daylight when I got home. I was wanting to test out the foot and kind of re-evaluate after these past 3-4 days off. It was hurting while I walked around work, and I actually got the back of my ankle clipped by a wire (huge heavy metal wire on wheels) and that gave me a scare. The run went okay though. The foot didn't really hurt until mile 2 and on a scale of one to ten it was about a two. At the end of the run, maybe in the last mile or so it started flaring up a bit, but only about a 5 out of 10 as far as pain goes.

The good part was just getting to run again. I've been deprived and angry these past couple days, but haven't really had time to show it due to work. As far as "getting back" there was really none of that. I felt really in shape and 8 miles didn't feel too far at all. Actually I wanted to run longer if it weren't the foot I would have. Well my post-evaluation prodding seems to point to a possible ankle sprain or ligament strain somewhere below and in front of my ankle. It hurts worse to turn left, so I think some tendons in there got overpulled or stressed, and while poking around I found that the pain was actually coming from above the base of my foot, so it's not from the bottom of my foot pounding anything too hard for sure. Right now I'm going to keep running on it. And if need be either cut back miles or if it gets too bad I'll have to take more days off. I'm wanting to get as much running in as possible still, so I think twice a day might be back in the mix to break up the longer stuff. At the same time a single run would give more recovery during the day, so it just comes down to how it feels.

4:30 pm. home. 40 degrees.
1:05:35, gm 540

11.21.08

Pretty much another day the same as yesterday. Didn't get home till sunset. April's having a party tonight for her friends wedding so I'm kicked out to her parents for the night. I'm also working tomorrow too, so looks like another day down the dran-o, but at least it's overtime pay.

Foot is still hurting so no real reason to push anything. I really wanted to run today, but again when it's dark before 5:30 and you don't get home till 5:40, there isn't a lot you can do except run in the dark. Running in the dark is fine and all, until you bust a kneecap on a rope, or trip on a divot, or slip on the sidewalk because you couldn't see it. So I'm just playing it safe and hopefully by Sunday I'll be able to do a long run and assess the situation a little better. The foot isn't really hurting, but I think it would be if I was running all this week. So again, I'm hoping it's a blessing in disguise.

11.20.08

Could barely sleep last night due to the head cold I have. Was horrible today at work, used about a million tissues and my nose is raw. Still don't feel so hot tonight with a throbbing head and snuffling up goop. Thought about running just for the heck of it, but April locked her keys in the car, we ended up having to do all this craziness and didn't get home till 7. Well actually I got dropped off so April could go back to her car as her mom had to pick us up from her aunt's house who picked us up from work. Yeah, not such a fun day.

I'm hoping it's a blessing in disguise as it'll give the foot more rest.