Date: 2009-11-14 15:33:33 Created: 2009-11-14 10:33:26
Parked on my couch, music being played and visualized on my TV, laptop on my lap and various good books within easy reach.
I did something strange to my left foot around two weeks ago. I have no idea what it was, but I noticed one day at work that it had a kind of dull, low-intensity ache along the outer left side of the foot's underside. The feeling was not unlike that of a twisted ankle, but in the wrong place. It did not hurt too much, so I went for a short(ish) run. It was not too bad while running, but it definitely got worse afterwards. So I took as much of a break from running as my patience let me, first for three or four days and then from Sunday of last week until today. The foot felt clearly better after each day of rest, and last night it finally felt back to normal. At last, it was time to run again!
Now, I suppose what a sensible person would have done was to test the waters with a short run.
I am not a sensible person, so I set my sights on a long run. A sort-of logical motivation is that I usually push myself more on shorter runs, while I take it easier and focus on having a good, sustainable tempo on longer runs. I felt like a longer, slower run would be nicer to my foot than a shorter where I would inevitably try to push myself. And my whole body has got plenty of rest, so getting to stretch out over a longer distance seemed really appealing.
Not sure that reasoning would hold up in court.
Okay, pretty sure it would not.
Anyway, after all the resting somehow the thought of doing a really long run got into my head and stayed there. Göteborgsvarvet is my "motivational" half marathon, and I have done one run of a slightly longer distance sometime during each year to make sure I am roughly right in my pace and shape. So I headed over to jogg.se and put together an almost completely new round of just over 22 kilometers.
It was saturday, around ten degrees Celsius, overcast and the breakfast was eaten. I put on my superhero costume and set out.
As I wrote above, one of the good things when I run longer distances is that I do not try to push myself too hard, especially not in the beginning. I really should get into interval training and proper warmups some day, but I have yet to do so. Until then, a longer distance (and especially a new one like today) makes me start out nice and slow and gradually build up when I get warm. It worked well today too, and as far as I can tell I found and kept a pretty even pace throughout the whole run. I breathed pretty easily, took in the scenery a bit and let my mind wander.
Of course, I focused a bit more than usual on my left foot. Happily, it held up really well. It does feel worn and a little sore now, but no more than I expect after a long run. After getting back, I was walking a bit uneasily, but it felt great to have done my run just according to plan and have it work out just like I hoped it would.
Now I will happily stay on this couch the rest of the weekend.
And eat good things. I still have plenty of apple pie and ice cream in store ...