Taking a Break

A couple days ago ran one lap around the track. I hadn't run for four days, and my ankle looked okay and wasn't bothering me, so I decided to give it a go. However, midway through one lap, it began to complain. It didn't hurt bad, but I knew better than to argue. I stopped, threw on my sweats and Merrell True Gloves and walked home shivering in the rain. After a few minutes of sitting on my couch, my ankle began to feel tight. The swelling flared up a little bit, though not as bad as last time. I'm writing this at night, and I only feel a slight bit of tightness. I like to think I didn't make things worse.

This morning, I checked out my ankle and it looked and felt fine, so I decided that I'd run just one lap around the track. I figure I should start following the pros' advice and start small, since running as little as a mile has already caused problems. Unfortunately, right as I hit the track, I felt pain on the top of both feet. If I were the only one in there, I would've stopped right then and gone home, but there were a few other people. Prideful as I am, I decided to fight the pain for one lap, then I threw on my shoes and went home.

I made a decision. I'm not going to run at all next week. The fact that I felt the pain after only a few steps tells me that my feet haven't yet healed from the mile runs and even my short runs are keeping them from recovering. I'm pretty sure my goal of running the 5k later this month is out of the question. But that's okay. I've decided that I'm going to swallow my pride and take it slow. If I don't humble myself and slow down, I'll just hurt myself. I just need to trust Michael Sandler, and Jason Robillard, and all the other prominent barefoot runners who all agree that starting small is the best way to go. They even recommend that experienced runners start running less than a mile. I'm no experienced runner and I've been going a mile. Bad news.

Anyway, I'll be doing calf and foot exercises in the meantime. Hopefully that will help me hit the ground running when I start again, no pun intended. Really.