Hard to believe but 45 years ago today I graduated from high school. Damn that is a long time ago and the world was a very different place. People really have not changed all that much though, just the tools, technology and communicating methods are different today.

I do feel badly for those high school students who are graduating this year who’s senior year was changed completely from what anyone would have expected due to COVID-19 and congratulate them on their achievement.

Sore Right Foot

Back to it after taking four days off to be very conservative with a sore right foot. On Saturday night I was walking around the house barefoot and started having discomfort in my right foot where my Tailor’s Bunionette is. It was still bothering on Sunday morning so I took that off as well.

On Monday, I started wearing the little toe spacer (I hadn’t been wearing it regularly lately) again and that seemed to really help. I could have run Tuesday and Wednesday, but I really wanted to give things a couple of days to keep calming down and this morning I could walk without any discomfort barefoot, so I figured it was time to run again.

I still don’t really know what happened, but it resolved itself with no running. I can’t really say total resting, because I still did the dog walking, mowing the lawn, weed wacking and all those other activities of daily life.

Actually the running break was a good thing and something that I need to look at doing a little more often in May/June. Taking a week or two to relax and let the body regenerate after a 4-6 months of running fairly consistently is something that even the pros do. I know that I am not good at not running, but even the four days in a row helped with some other niggles and got me back to where I really wanted to go for my run again.

Unfortunately, I missed some really great days for running, but there will be more this summer I am sure.

The Run

Planned run and focus:

Just run 3-4 miles up on top at a comfortable and see how the foot holds up. Ensure that I wear my little toe separator.

• Course: Philbrick Laps
• Weather: Light drizzle, fog, 61*F, 100% Humidity, Wind 10 mph S
• Distance: 5.05
• Time: 45:50
• Pace: 9:05

Splits:

• 1.0 – 9:35 / Started off nice and easy. I let the body guide me on how fast, while I focused on running tall, keeping my arms 90* and landing quietly.
• 2.0 – 9:22 / More of the same – just running comfortably, although I did have to take off my glasses, since the mist made them mostly useless.
• 3.0 – 9:17 / Running comfortably. Mary and I were passing each other on the laps, she was out on her run as well.
• 4.0 – 8:56 / I picked up the cadence into the 170s and kept focusing on landing quietly and running tall. Ditched my running hat after this lap.
• 5.0 – 8:20 / The foot was feeling good so I picked up the effort a little just to see how a bit faster felt. I had thought about doing a fast quarter at the end and started out great, but didn’t really have a lot of interest in running hard. Still ended with a 1:46 quarter, without going to the well at all. Guess that 10 mph tailwind did help a little.

What did I do well?

I finished the run and my right foot felt fine! That was the biggest takeaway from this run. Before started I went back to an old method that worked well for me back in 2015 – 100 ups too loosen me up before getting going. That felt fine and reminded me that I need to keep doing them.

Maybe the form work is starting to sink in a little more because it was not as taxing to maintain the running tall or keeping everything pointed forward not all akimbo. Plus at the top of the hill on the last lap I startled someone walking back to their vehicle after getting mail of their box. They never heard me coming up the hill. They were either in another world or I am getting quieter.

On that last quarter, I maintained good form all the way through to the end.

What do I need to work on?

Keep focusing on improving the efficiency of my running mechanics and when I decide suddenly that I want to run a fast quarter or something like that, actually commit to doing it, versus the half-arsed effort that I tend to do.

Shoes:

New Balance Beacon v1 – Did everything I wanted from them. On a wet tar road I had great grip and didn’t have any issues with traction.

What was I thinking?

I actually stayed focused on running the whole run. I didn’t go off into wool gathering or thinking about the blog post I wanted to write or any of the other stuff going on around us. I just stayed in the moment and focused on the run.

Although I did take my hat off at the start of the last lap and it did make a difference with how I felt during the rest of the run. I didn’t feel like I was overheating nearly as much. So when it is warmer and humid, wearing a hat will cause me to overheat quicker and not run as well. Although it does mean that I will have to ditch the glasses too.

I wonder sometimes if during a road race if I would be better off not having my glasses on, it forces me to focus more on the running, because I can’t see as well. Something to think about.