I ran for the first time in 14 days, and the first time without bad pain in 21 days! I’ll get to that later. I started off my day in the pool at 4:00 a.m. and I swam a PR distance of 4 miles! I had the pool completely to myself for the first 3 miles and until the “soakers” came to the pool to chat and pretend like they are exercising. Well, at least they are getting out.
It was a little depressing to see how beautiful the early morning was with a nearly full moon out. If I wasn’t recoverying from my foot injury, I would be out on the trail, probably running about 35 miles. But instead, I put on my goggles, ear plugs, and dipped into the waters.
My 400-meter (quarter mile) splits times were: 10:44, 10:41, 10:50, and 10:54 for 43:08 first mile. Next, 11:03, 11:15, 11:33, 11:15, for 45:04 second miles. 11:34, 11:20, 11:24, 11:26, for 45:45 third mile. 11:30, 11:30, 12:00, 11:42 for 46:42 fourth mile. Total for the four miles was 3:00:53. The energy for doing that was roughly the same as running 21 miles. I felt good afterwards and felt like I could have continued on for quite awhile. However, three hours in the chlorinated pool really takes its toll on my skin and hear. Clarifying shampoo helps the hair and a host of skin products helps the skin, but what a hassle taking care of both. I finished of the morning in the pool by doing ten minutes of tough deep kicking while on my back to work the hamstrings.
The morning view was wonderful. It was a beautiful as the sun rose above Mount Timpanogos to shin on the clear blue sky. Some people arrived to do some fishing and a family launched their sail boat from the marina. It was beautiful to watch the boat float out into Utah Lake.
I next went into the exercise room and timidly decided to try running on a treadmill. With this injury, I have read that barefoot running is possible at some point. Running barefoot does not put as much stress on the injured tendon. At first my pace was only a 18-minute mile pace with a timid jog. Great, no pain at all. I eased up the pace slowly and eventually reached a 10-minute mile pace. Still no pain. During the second mile I experimented pushing the pace clear up to 8-minute mile pace. Not bad, but I’m not used to running barefoot, so my foot placement wasn’t smooth enough. I backed off. I then tried to run at 5% incline, but pretty quickly started to feel some pain, so I returned to the flats. After two miles, I peddled on the bike for 15 minutes and then returned to run one more mile. My feet bottoms aren’t used to the barefoot running. It will take a little while for them to get used to that.
So, I was very encouraged. It was very nice to feel the running muscles working again. I had visions of never being able to run again without pain. There now is hope. I’ll continue to be very careful.
Wow, up to 7 miles for the month! 900 miles for the year. But in the bright side, I swam a PR one-week distance of 13 miles. That is roughly equivelent of running 68 miles. I am maintaining my overall fitness and the swimming is helping the core get stronger. | 