Back After A Two-Week Break

Four weeks into an epic 40-week training plan and I am already taking time off. Not good. This isn’t my first rodeo so I had already anticipated that a 40-week plan would have a few interruptions due to aches and pains. However, I didn’t think it would be this soon and for this this long.

Two weeks ago, after a couple days of hard and fast 7-miles, the joint in my right big toe felt really sore. The next day my daughters wanted to go for a run. I simply could not pass up the chance to run with my daughters so I went with. We did an easy three-mile run through Thief River Falls. Afterward, my toe was really inflamed and I had to walk with a slight limp the rest of the day.

I was supposed to run 14 the next day but decided to take a break instead. Each day after that I would assess the pain and decide whether or not to start running again. This went on for the next 10 days.

Last Wednesday, after 10 days of no running, the pain was almost gone but decided to wait a few more days and, if it felt good on Saturday, I would go out for a run with my buds at Gear Running.

This morning was that Saturday. There was still a slight trace of pain. I would estimate the the pain level was down to about 5% of what it was two weeks ago. I decided that it was time.

Typically, this is a 4.6 mile run. We were all running slower than normal which was good. About a 9:30 pace. After the first mile my toe felt fine. As we came around the far side of the lake, one of the runners said he wanted to add another lake to the route. This was at the 3 mile point and I was feeling so good that I decided to join him. And to make it even more fun, it was raining lightly the whole way with a few spots of heavy rain. We ended up going a total of 8.5 miles and I felt awesome the entire way!

It was so awesome to be running again. I had forgotten how much I love it.