It's Friday!

Do you ever start your workday wanting to exclaim, "WTF", so loud that the guys jackhammering outside of the building could hear you?  That's how my day started. 

It is Friday though, so all I need to do is keep it together until 4:00PM. 

Last night, I wore my Strassburg sock until 4:17AM.  Almost the full night - which is a testament to how well I slept last night, too. When I woke up an hour later, I felt no pain in my foot, which was pretty awesome. I usually feel minor pain in my right foot when I wake up. 

I know I told you all my quad was hurting yesterday, so you are probably wondering why I have foot pain now.  

I hurt my foot in October 2013 and was out from running until around October 2014.  I had a stress fracture.  After the stress fracture healed, I still had pain.  So, I found out that my talus bone was out of place causing stress on my peroneal tendons and ankle.  Additionally, I have a minor heal spur causing pain and inflammation in my plantar as well. This is all due to old ankle sprains that my teenage and young adult self pretty much ignored after the swelling went away.  I had some pretty narly sprains, too. 

Once the pain in my quad goes away - which I think will be tomorrow or Sunday - I plan to approach my workouts for the next 4 weeks a little differently.  Because I was out for an entire year and couldn't do much of anything (walking, cycling, elliptical, swimming all hurt my foot), I gained significant amount of weight.  So, the extra weight that I'm still carrying (even though it is less than when I started) might be causing additional strain on my body. Because of this, I am thinking I need to focus on working on my core strength and mobility before I start increasing my mileage again.  

My thoughts are as follows: 

• Dynamic Warm-up and running 2 miles everyday, and continuing doing my normal daily walks. (Total distance will be around 19 miles, including the walking)
• Mondays and Wednesdays: Arms and abs, stretching and rolling
• Tuesdays and Thursday: Body weight legs (squats, calf raises, clams, bosu ball), stretching and rolling 
• Fridays: Just stick with the running, only. 
• Saturday: Just stick with the running, only. 
• Sunday: Longer Dynamic Warm-up, incorporating some light drills or lunge

As the 4 weeks progress, I may increase my mileage to 3 miles on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

I love running.  I love increasing my mileage and intensity.  Right now though, I need to be patient and focus on getting stronger.  I want to be able to run for the next 50 years...and possibly be able to run fast and pain free doing it. My arms and tummy are doing to look pretty good if I keep up the core, too!