tough week

(my route as tracked by my HTC eris using MyTracks)

I should be writing about the 50 miles I ran this week, including two days of doubles. But I'm not. I only ran 14.3 miles. I took Mon-Wed off following Sunday's bike ride, which immediately aggravated my left foot (medial part of the arch). Each day I considered going to the pool and pool running but I just couldn't do it. I just don't care enough to go run in a pool. Obviously I didn't bike. No rowing erg either, as that involves pushing with my feet. And no double poling on my roller skis. Coulda done that without aggravating anything but I just couldn't get motivated. I mostly worked and when I thought about running wondered how long I should give the foot before running again.

I tested the waters with a nice run around Back Cove on Thursday. It's amazing how light and springy the legs feel when 1) you haven't run in 4 days, 2) you are only running 3.5 miles, and 3) the course is pancake flat. I felt a very, very slight soreness after the run when I'd push the clutch (damn these manual shift cars!). It seems that pushing with the forefoot/toes aggravates the pain (hence the bike). I took Friday off just to give it another day.

I tested the waters again with a short run at Pineland Saturday morning. This was a real test because it involves running up hill which is more stress on the forefeet. And it was a real test because I had to keep up with the Joneses, I mean Scott Ellis and David Roberts, who were running at slightly slower than my 25K race pace. Luckily I new I was stopping short, so it was fun to move a bit faster on the SMR. Following the race, I mean training run, the foot felt good, even when pushing on the clutch (I had ealier learned to slide my foot up and push more with my whole foot).

Last night Cacky and I caught the Cowboy Junkies concert at The Strand Theater in Rockland. I thought I would run the hilly roads in Hope (where Cacky's parents live) but I couldn't spend time in Camden area without running the state park so this morning I did my final test of the waters.

I parked on the Lincolnville side of the multi-use trail (a graded dirt road closed to auto traffic that runs through the park) and ran up the road and to the Bald Mountain trail to the peak. This was a 900+ foot climb in a little less than two miles. I descended back down and ran toward Cameron Mountain for a short bit before turning around and heading back downhill to the car. Total distance was 5 miles. My Garmin 305 battery was dead (somehow I left it on after Pineland and I managed to track my ride from Pineland to home and then to Hope!). But I used the gps on my HTC eris to track my run which it did beautifully. Somehow, I forgot that I was carrying it or else I would have snapped a beautiful early morning photo of Penobscot Bay, because the view from atop Bald Mountain is a money shot. I guess I went into O2 debt on the run up.

More importantly, the run up Bald Mountain put significant stress on my left forefoot, and it seems no worse for the wear. Amazing. I would have thought after Sunday's bike ride that I'd need to stay off the foot for 2-3 weeks. This week I'm going to try to ramp my running back up to 35-40 miles and see how it feels. I need to get some 40+ mile weeks in for Pineland and Mt. Washington.