Right Foot Forward

I took the day off yesterday.  I know it might not have been the best thing for my marathon training to skip a day of running in what is already going to be a shorter distance week, but I think it was the best thing for me to do.  Sometimes you just need a mental health day, you know?  Not to mention the fact that this marathon is still 10 weeks away and I refuse to believe that this is going to screw things up so fantastically that I don't finish.

So, I did get a good night's sleep last night.  I'll admit that my heart still wasn't 100% in the game this morning when I rolled out of bed to start running, but by the time I actually started running, I was feeling much better.  Even though I didn't really want to, I went back to Central Park this morning.  I knew I just needed to tackle it and even make myself do a lap course.

I didn't do anything too crazy.  Not two full loops of the Park or anything.  Instead, what I did was one loop of the Lower Loop of the Park and then one full loop. I saw the Terrier marathon group doing hill repeats on Cat Hill and it made me really glad that I wasn't doing all that fancy stuff for marathon training.  It's enough to just get out there and run, I think. 

I did notice as soon as I put my right foot in my shoe this morning that my big toe was still sore.  I'd take a picture and show it to you if there was anything to show.  Except it looks exactly like my left toe, which is the frustrating thing.  I decided to put a band-aid on before I left for the run to see if that would help cushion my toe a little bit.  Um, maybe a little bit.  Not really all that much.  I could definitely still feel it the whole time I was running.  But, even after running, it still looks the same.  Just like a toe with a callus on the bottom.  Same as my other foot. 

Running today was okay.  Not stellar.  Not bad.  I'm glad that I took yesterday off.  I know that I wouldn't have been feeling as motivated as I was today and it was definitely the right decision.  I did end up taking two 1:00 walking breaks somewhere in the middle of all that running today.  Not because I really needed to, but because I happened to be by drinking fountains and thought that I should stop and take a sip of water. 

The worst part of today happened somewhere around the 7-mile marker.  I looked at my watch and realized that 70-something minutes had elapsed and I was still pretty far from home and I wanted to just sit down and cry.  Because I had forgotten that I was running more than 7 miles today.  I totally forgot that I had already done the Lower Loop of the Park and that was going to make my total around 9 miles.  When I realized that, getting home was a breeze.  I think I actually sped up for the last 2 miles as a result.  It was just so frustrating when I thought I was running 7 miles and at 70 minutes, I still had at least 20 more minutes of running to do.  Oops. 

The really funny thing I noticed today is that somehow when it's 62 degrees outside, people dress for winter running in this city!  I was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and was really comfortable, but there were people in pants and jackets and long-sleeved shirts.  Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't see people in hats and gloves.  It seemed crazy to me that you'd need all that for 62 degrees when you're running!  I noticed that some of the people I saw in the beginning wearing jackets ended up with them tied around their waists later on.  Good to know that they didn't really need that stuff in this weather. 

So, I'm currently at 16.15 miles this week and my target is supposed to be 30.  Obviously, that's not going to happen.  I actually can't guarantee that I'll get any more running in this weekend right now.  I'm going to hope for the best, but if I don't add any more miles, I think I'm going to live with it.  Maybe by next week my toe will be feeling better anyway! 

Running
Time: 1:34:26
Distance: 8.95 miles
Pace: 10:33/mile