A Lean and Hungry Look

I took Maja again and we enjoyed a very relaxing early morning run.  The pace was all of 8:00 per mile, and I tried to work on the form a little while running in the Nike Free's.  I had lunch with Chad and we chatted briefly about his experience training in racing flats.  I like the idea better than going straight to the VFF/barefoot approach, and may try it out the next time I'm ready to buy shoes.  I remember my old Nike Waffle Racers from high school (and still have one from the pair I wore when I broke 4:30 in the 1600 as a HS soph--pathetic, I know) and how much I loved wearing them, so I'm looking forward to trying it out in the next couple of months.

As I was getting ready to leave for work, Brooke told me that Janey (our 4-year-old) had told her before going to bed that the glow-in-the-dark bracelet she was wearing was "not magich, just a coincidence."  (That's not a typo--it's how she says "magic.")  I have no idea what she meant, let alone where she picked up the new vocab word.

After yesterday's run, I had a little nagging soreness in my left Achilles tendon (where I've had the problems before) throughout the day.  The pain was an inch or two above the insertion point, so I don't think it was the same as the tendinitis that gave me fits in 07 and 08, but I don't want to take a chance.  I skipped my run this morning and will probably limit myself to three runs this week, focusing on doing my stretches and toe raises morning and evening in an effort to stave off further problems before I start building my winter base.

Still feeling some soreness in the AT (mild), so I kept the mileage low.  I stretched and did toe raises twice yesterday.

Pace: 7:30.

The niggling soreness in my left AT is still there, but it feels different than the problem I had before--higher and largely on the outer edge as opposed to the insertion point on the inside edge.  In addition, it really doesn't bother me while running--I just have a very mild pain throughout the day.  While I'm a little concerned about it, I suspect it's one of those pains that will just go away after a couple of days as opposed to something chronic, so I'm going to keep running low miles unless it starts to get worse or hangs around for a few more days.  I ran in the Nike Free's with Maja and tried to focus on a more neutral stride.  The temperature was perfect for shorts and long-sleeve tee, and the run was relaxing, at least until I developed a blister from the shoes on the outside edge of my left foot, just behind the midpoint.  I think my feet may be a little wide for the Free's, because the blister seems to have resulted from my foot hanging slightly off the edge of the insole.  I've always hated Nike running shoes, but I got a great deal on the Free's and the concept intrigued me.

I woke up with a head cold, so I took it pretty easy on the run.  I brought Maja along and she did pretty well, even when I picked it up a bit over the final mile.  We went up to Wasatch and across Parley's and back.