Wednesday, 10/22/08

Today I ran 3 miles in 23:48.

This was both a triumphant and frustrating run. I wanted to see if I could run fast on my hurt toe, which has been getting better every day. So I went out and instantly felt very good at a significantly faster pace than I usually do these days. So I kept it up, and felt wonderful until the last half-mile, when a driver was acting erratically and, in order to give him/her a wide berth, I darted out to the side of the street only to roll my left foot on a pine cone that had fallen from the tree above.

Now, at a relatively slow pace, this would have been annoying, but I probably could have reacted in time and avoided rolling the foot too much. But here, going at a pace three to four minutes faster than usual, I hit the pine cone HARD and instantly felt it. Thank goodness it came at the very end of the run, so I could get back home without running on the foot for very long. Fortunately, I can walk on the foot without limping, but I can feel it swelling. Again, because I got to it quickly, I was able to apply ice right away, so I'm confident I've done everything I can. We'll just have to see how it feels tomorrow.

All that aside, I had a great time running fast! The time I ran in surprises even me, but I felt very strong in terms of my running form at the end of the run. Today was almost oppressively hot, and I was dumb and didn't bring water with me to work today. While it didn't affect me too much during the day, I definitely felt it during the run, but it obviously didn't affect me too much. :)

I'm very happy with my cardiovascular level right now. The fact that I could switch gears so quickly from doing slow to fast pace and feel strong afterwards is a great feeling. Hopefully, my foot will be OK. I just took the ice off it and massaged it and it felt fine, so that's good. Until tomorrow....