Where'd that foot pain go?

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Saturday morning I was using crutches to get around the house and if you would have told me then that I’d run five days later without pain in my foot, I’d have thought I really was John Locke and the island had cured me.

Following doctor’s advice, as I always do, I went for a run. He’d said ‘not super-long’ which to me meant run until it hurts or twenty miles, whichever comes first. Actually, I planned to run 10 minutes with only marginal hope that I’d complete the time without having to stop. My foot was feeling completely normal as I started though, and maybe I’d get lucky. I was on the trails and when I reached Clear Creek from my car, I’d gone 6 minutes and felt absolutely no pain. My brain calculated quickly…as it always does…that if I went another 90 seconds and then turned around, I’d have a 15-minute run and a good test of the recovery process…so I did.

I returned to the car with no pain and drove home thinking it would come before the night was over. It never did.

So…now I’m supposed to take a day off before running again, which I’ll do. I’m going to see the doc tomorrow and I’ll show him the foot and what a good patient I’ve been. He’ll say “for once you listened to me” or something to that effect and I’ll agree and when I’m hurt again, I’ll give him a call and because of this experience, there will be a 20% chance that I’ll follow his advice the first time…which is up. I really need to start burning some calories. Thanksgiving is a week away and is the traditional kickoff to 10 pounds of weight gain I schedule every year for the holidays. Not this year, though.

Run duration: 15 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 250.