I Did It! I Ran Again!
As i have been writing all week last week I was pretty bummed out and miserable due to the injury of my right foot that I have suffered thanks to the injury on my left knee and the overcompensation that came with it. The pain was so bad in my foot by last Monday after my run that I was severely limping and I could barely make it home. I vowed not to run and rest it for a week. And to be honest I couldn’t have ran even if I wanted to as the pain while got better every day it was not back to the point where I would have felt comfortable running with it.
This morning I felt the foot was getting even better and I should b able to run. Running is very addictive. I felt very deprived all week last week. So I packed clothes for a lunchtime run. I packed clothes for outside running in the 40 degree (5C) weather as well as a T-shirt for running on the treadmill or to work out in the gym if I decided not to run. I figured I would play it by ear. As the morning progressed I still wasn’t sure if I should run and I have rated my foot at about 85%. 85% might not sound all that good but it is certainly a lot better than 20% which is what I would have rated it last Monday night.
By lunch time I decided that it was time to give running a shot. I knew that I was going to take it easy and I was not going to do anything stupid. I also decided that if the pain would get worse I’d stop immediately. Since it is hard to stop and get in your car immediately when you run mostly out and back runs on a trail, today I have decided to stick with a track. So I drove to a park that has a 1/3 mile track so the worst I’d have to do is walk 1/6th mile after I’d call it quits. Luckily I didn’t have to call it quits.
I took it very easy and ran at the first 2 miles at 11 minute a mile pace. Then I tried a bit of a tempo run just to see how it feels and I picked up the pace all the way to 6:30 at one point but the whole tempo ran only lasted 0.1 miles and I was back to over 10 minute miles afterward. All in all I ran 3 miles today at an average pace of 10:42 which is a recovery pace for me at this time.
Once I got back to the office I could feel tenderness in the tendon but I still would have rated it at 85%. I have also decided that I would take another day off tomorrow just to give it more time to heal. But right now as I’m typing up this blog post the foot feels fine. I’d rate it 95% easily. So if it stays this way by the morning I’ll be running again tomorrow. We shall see! I’ crossing my fingers and holding my breath, I’m so ready for another 3 miler tomorrow! My 10k race is less than 2 weeks away so I’ll just stay with easy runs and taper. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?