Thursday, September 9, 2010

First day of school

Because yesterday was my first day of freedom - the kids both in school - of course I went for a long run. I went on the road because I wanted to go down to the school and visit my kindergartener for his lunch. I haven't done a long run on the road in a long time, and now I remember why.

Road running hurts. It is so jarring, pounding your feet into pavement for mile upon mile. When I left the house I realized I had just enough time to get there, running at my usual slow pace. No messing around. So I pushed myself just a little bit harder than I otherwise would have, not letting myself slack off when I felt like being lazy. Instead of being a few minutes late, as I thought I might, I was five minutes early. Wow. Either my math is really bad, or I ran pretty fast (for me).

I felt good. But after visiting my sons at school for lunch for an hour, it was time to run 7 miles home. My hip had started to ache. I forgot to stretch before leaving the house then pushed myself. So I stretched more, rested and drank more water, on the way back, and was quite a bit slower. But still a good pace for me.

I don't think that is a run I'm going to continue to do on a regular basis. It was pretty painful by the end, especially my right foot. I mistakenly wore my "seven mile shoes." I really like these Cascadia trail shoes, but after about 7 miles, they always make my foot hurt. I'm not sure if I can really blame the shoes though. I think it is my toe. I have this one toe that is permanently curled and it can be painful to run on...I've seriously thought about getting it intentionally broken so that it will heal back straight.

I fell asleep soon after the exhausted kindergartener last night, my right side aching. I'm much better today, a little stiff, but I'm going to go walk it off with the puppy on this lovely rainy September day.

Oh yeah, with all the excitement about the kids going to school, I almost forgot to mention that I signed up for the Blue Mountain 30k, (18.6 miles) a trail run on October 3rd. I'm pretty excited about it because it sounds like a great race on challenging terrain, and I've been feeling pretty good. AND I have time to really train. I can run anytime that I want while the kids are in school. Whoo hoo! That said, I'll be taking a rest day from running today.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Street running destroys me. It hurts my feet, my shins, everything. When I see people running around town along the street or wherever, I think that if that was my only option, I don't think I'd be running.