Uh Oh Spaghettio...

Last Sunday I ran 6 miles--the longest run I've run since the fall. Dear lord was it painful. Of course the fact that it hurt so much and wasn't even that "fast" (51 minutes and change) was frustrating but I got over that pretty quickly.

What I haven't been about to get over is this pain on the outside of my right foot. The pain is a dull ache and extends from just above my ankle to my pink toe. It aches even when I walk on it. It doesn't necessarily hurt while I'm running but after words, holy @#%!.

I've done a little web research and have asked some of my friends who are versed in human anatomy and athletic injuries and it sounds like it might be peroneal tendonitis. One website said it's onset usually occurs "when the patient returns to activity after a period of time of." Hmm. Sounds a smidge like myself. I'm considering going to a doctor and/or sneaking into seeing a trainer to get a proper diagnosis but i think it's atleast safe to say I have some type of tendonitis in my foot that may be related to the pick up in training I've done. Another possibility is my new shoes. This would be odd however since I've run in the same model for years now, though it should not be ruled out.

Sick last week with a moderate cold, I took an extra day off from running which gave me 3 days in a row of no running. My foot was feeling better to walk on so I thought maybe I had nixed the tendonitis and that maybe running today wouldn't be so bad. Wrong. I just finished icing it but am wondering if it's worth it to proceed with training. If I were working towards a 5K or 10K, maybe I could take a week of rest, but because I'm planning to run the half marathon, I'm a little nervous to take that much time off since that didn't really work out for me so well last time. I don't necessarily have a tremendous desire to run the half except for the fact that it would be fun to do it with Kara. She's still really up for it and I would feel pretty bad letting her down like that.

I guess my dilemma is that I want to run the half marathon because I want to run it with Kara but I don't know that I can train at the level I need to to get to a place where finishing a half marathon in one piece over these next few weeks. Kara doesn't have any interest in going fast or have any goal time so if we dogged it and ran 10:00 pace, I'm sure she'd be just as happy as she would be if we ran 8:30's (my goal). I guess I'm just stuck on the fact that it's 13-frekkin'-miles and if running 6 miles leaves me with foot pain, what would 13.1 do? The other thing is that I tried the running-a-half-marathon-with-no-training thing. While running it got me a PR, it also floored me for several weeks with IT and quad problems. I'd like to avoid that so as to avoid yet another set back and to progress with running. I guess the bottom line is that I probably shouldn't run the Great Bay half. The problem now is how to tell Kara. Bah. I hate these situations...

More Bleepin' Changes

My race schedule has changed yet again. A few months ago I emailed a bunch of UNH women xc/track alums about running a team in the Reach the Beach relay. Initially there was a good amount of interest but that seemed to wane as people checked their schedules and bank accounts. This includes myself who's bank account is not exactly in the best shape right now. With RTB off the schedule, September opens up in terms of races. As I have it now, I plan to run the Fox Point Sunset 5-miler in early September (official date yet to be announced) and the Eliot Festival Day 5K on the last weekend of the month. I ran the Eliot Festival Day 5K last year and loved it; it was a great course and great atmosphere and the food spread at the end of the race was unbelievable! Needless to say I'm pretty happy I'll get to run it again this year.

I got my new runnings shoes Monday and am looking forward to taking my first run in them. That was supposed to happen today but have decided to take today off. I am incredibly sore as a result of some harder runs at the end of last week (Kara kicked my ass! -- in a good way of course though) and dodgeball. Yes, dodgeball. The first game of the new season was last night and, while it was fun, it was surprisingly (read: embarrassingly) hard on the bod. In addition to my legs, my 3rd toe on my left foot is also sore. Why? In a act of grace, I dropped the base of my blender on it. All I wanted was a milkshake and I ended up with a bruised and potentially broken toe. Fortunately it doesn't bother me when I walk since it's in the middle of the toe line and doesn't get used all that much. It should therefore be ok to run on, but I figured and extra day away from running couldn't hurt. (For the record I did still make the milkshake and it was delicious).

No Race, But Motivated

So last weeks Inauguration Day 5K didn't happen for me or Zach. The alarm went off then it was turned off and then it was 8:30--an hour before the start. Since it takes 20-30 minutes to get to Durham and there were still things to be done (walk the dog, eat breakfast, etc) we decided to nix the race. That and it was freezing outside and the bed was warm. I was a bit disappointed I guess but in a way I was relieved; Knowing the race wasn't going to be pretty awful I figured I spared myself some frustration and embarrassment.

I did do most of the running I had planned for last week though despite not having a slow 5K time to motivate me. Running this 1/2 marathon with Kara is proving to be motivating in itself, especially since I'm meeting Kara to run two days a week, one of which is today. It also didn't hurt that I was in Virginia Beach last week for a conference. On Wednesday, while NH was getting slammed with snow and freezing rain, I ran along the beach in 70-degree weather wearing a t-shirt. It was glorious.

I have updated my race calendar yet again as well as my training program. I hoping it doesn't continue to change this drastically again (i.e., that another random 1/2 marathon sneaks it's way into my race calendar). I'm also updating my shoes this week. I've had my current pair since May (yikes) and am starting to notice shin splints and foot pain which I can only associate with old shoes. I ordered my new pair a couple weeks ago (birthday gift from mom and dad) and am expecting them this week. I'm hoping the new shoes and the new running buddy are enough to get me running consistently again. They atleast can't hurt my training!