My Return to the Road

The most humid day of the year yet and I choose today to return to my running. I only ran the short 4.6 miler since taking two weeks off due to the relentless plantar fasciitis. How did it feel? I'm not 100% for sure but, I'm close to 80% or so. Let's see how the morning hits me. If you've had this itis before then you know that the morning is the tell tell sign that alerts you to your condition. Will I wake up with renewed pain or will my healing continue on? Check with me in eight hours.



If all goes well on Friday morning getting out of bed then I will prepare for a longer run on Saturday. Saturday is the day that our marathon training group does its long runs. Since we're just starting up, only 3 weeks now, Saturday's run is only 8 miles. That is no big deal for most of my running buddies and me because we run around our lake every weekend, which is about 9.5 miles. We do this when we're not in marathon training season and just want to keep up a base. All that to say, I'm fairly comfortable running 8 miles even if I've been away for a couple of weeks. The challenge is in the condition of my left foot. Running that distance this early in the game my lead to prolonged problems with my foot. I'm not really interested in risking that. Maybe I should just run out 2 miles and return, then grab a bike and meet the gang as they make their return trip to the starting point.



I think deciding to run the shorter distance would be a demonstration of genuine wisdom. However, I am a runner dag nab it, and we runners don't need no stinking wisdom...just run hard! Wait, wait, I'm a coach. Along with four other coaches, I'm leading a group of about 100 people who all wish to run a marathon or two this year. If one of them develops a minor injury and I recommend they rest for a couple of weeks or even three, how can I expect them to listen to me if I'm unwilling to listen to me? I would be truly disappointed if someone was forced to end their marathon pursuit for the year simply because they did not take enough time to heal from an injury. Basically, I must practice what I preach.



A guy at my job said to me today, "I know how much you love running and you plan to run until you're eighty. Right? Then it would be stupid to run too much now and risk a chronic injury". Good advise I imagine. I will listen.



BTW - There's no real chance that I will begin biking regularly. This bike I have now is a loaner from a kool running buddy who let me take it at the last minute last Friday afternoon. I was able to use it to keep pace with my group last Saturday morning. Clearly riding a bike works different muscles because it was quite challenging to get around on that thing. It really has been years since I was last on a bicycle. Sure you never forget how to ride a bike but, you certainly won't be as good at it as you were before.