Back in the game

I cannot really believe it but when I left the house this morning I took my running bag. I had to sneak out because I didn't want my wife to see me leaving with this bag. It would have been hard to explain why I was limping, suffering and whining all day yesterday and claiming special attention from her.

I took a shower, gave the blister a hard look and was surprised that soap and shampoo didn't cause any pain. Fast Eric shared his blister wisdom and that was the time I started reassessing the situation. Maybe I can still get it fixed but I wasn't sure where to pick up some duct tape on my way to work and I was already running late. I prepared a quick fix with these blister band-aids (putting it directly onto the open wound) and covered everything with a big tape-like bandage.

The only worry I now have is that I discovered some sort of bruise close to the blister exactly underneath the midfoot region. Not sure where that came from but maybe I unconsciously adjusted my foot strike on my last run to reduce the pain? I hope it's just a related symptom and nothing new from the current overuse. The killer is always the long downhill stretch where I hit the road hard with sometimes sub 3:50 min/k (6:10 min/ml) paces. I can run that speed but it's not exactly something I am used to on a daily basis (as my left foot can tell now).

I am not sure how to evaluate the fact that I basically took a day off yesterday which of course is not supposed to happpen during this test. But It’s not that I “needed" it for my musular recovery; it was rather “forced” upon me.

Let's face it, I could fly to a remote island with masseuse, physiologist, a yoga instructor and a cook to perform this test under perfect conditions which would result in a great steady state pace. But if I would plan my training based on that back in the real world I'd probably end up in hospital. In other words, the currrent test reflects very much my current lifestyle. There always will be disruptions (not because of blisters I hope) and I also will be eventually hungover (like today because I ended up celebrating my test stop with too many beers last night). Yesterday's disruption and today's hangover will make the test results very usable for my future training – because the conditions will likely be the same.

On a different note, Daniel sent me a link for further discussion. The bottom line is we should all run around in racing flats only. Hmm, I like my heavy duty gear though but I also remember one of Namban's quicker guys, Brett, saying that he runs mostly in flats. Makes me think... Daniel, why don't you go first? ;-)

Anyway, I went out today and ran the 7 miler @ 4:01 min/k (6:28 min/ml). The foot behaved. It's most important to not think at all about the blister. If you do you start making little adjustments, be it to reduce impact or to force yourself to roll exactly over it, giving it a bit of extra pounding so that the fresh skin gets used to it quickly. You only want to get your natural foot action back without being conscious about it. It worked for me. Breathing felt easy although my average heart rate at 84% seemed a little elevated for this kind of output. Can it be the hangover? Or do I tolerate a higher HR better; at 84% I normally gasp harder for air than today.

To fill yesterday's gap in my test data I assume for now that I would have run the workout 20 seconds per mile slower (4:10 min/k or 6:43 min/ml) as suggested by Mystery Coach.