More Baby Steps...and a Giant Leap

I meant to post on Friday. EPIC FAIL.

I also meant to post on Saturday. EPIC FAIL.

So, here I am, posting on a Sunday evening whilst waiting to catch the re-run of Animal Planet's new reality t.v. show, Jockeys. My life is so exciting...please don't be too jealous.

On Friday, I ran in the early morning hours, and well, it was okay. The foot was still feeling funny and I definitely had to slow down to accommodate the fun. The fear of something really being wrong with my foot kept creeping back into my head. So, I kept praying that it was just my over-worked, over-used Superfeet inserts and promised that I would buy myself a new pair on Saturday. In fact, that very evening, I was talking to a few of the Lakefront Angels (one of the girls that I run with had a boyfriend who started calling us this. It's going on a t-shirt.) and one suggested that because MRI and X-rays aren't always reliable when it comes to stress fractures, I should really get the new inserts as soon as possible and then break them in slowly (she's in the medical field, so her advice isn't completely bogus).

I went to The Runner's Edge in Andersonville the next day and got my new Superfeet. It had been about 2 and a half years since I'd gotten a new pair, so this purchase was well overdue. When I got home, I sized them, trimmed them, and then walked back and forth to Mass in them.

Since I couldn't afford to do Spring Training with CES, and a few other girls just didn't want to, we decided to institute a Sunday "nooner". Myself and Jen are both 10:30 runners (although Jen used to be a 9:00 mile), but Judy and Leslee are both 9:30 and 9:00 runners. I told everyone ahead of time that I was going to play it by ear according to how my foot feels. Well, we started out fast and only got faster as we went on! We stayed at a sub-9:30 pace and ran the last mile at a 9:15 pace. It was work, but it didn't feel like much more work than I usually expend on a long run. Oh, and we ran six miles.

Six miles. And, it appears that, so far at least, the inserts seemed to have solved my foot issue. I'm icing my foot right now as a precaution, but it didn't hurt one bit.

I managed, however to get a blister on the inside of my Right instep most likely because I haven't broken in the Superfeet yet. This marks the first time I've ever had a blister there. Ever.

Well I'm going to play it by ear for a while. I'm tempted to start running like crazy again because, it doesn't hurt anymore, and clearly, I'm so very fast. The smart side of me knows that this would be a huge mistake, even if I wasn't just coming off of an injury. So, in the interest of not biting it too early in the season, I will refrain from running tomorrow morning and instead do some non-running cardio and strength training in the evening.

It's good to be back. Even if it's almost.