Fractured Stress

My weekend > your weekend

It's been a little over a week and the area around my toes/ball of my right foot is still in pain. For a while I thought it was a stress fracture but it really just seems to be the result of wearing unsupportive shoes through airports all weekend. Blah.

I did an easy 30 minute run of randomness last night. It wasn't too bad but I was getting some pain in my right Achilles which became a bother towards the end of the run. In total, it was 2.6 miles on a mostly high incline... probably not what I was aiming for in an "easy" run, but it wasn't too bad. I was still majorly jet-lagged from the fact that I was in England over the weekend. Yeah, over the weekend. Meaning I had about 24 hours to adjust to the 5 hour time difference and then, just as I adjust, fly 5 timezones back.

Today felt even worse jet-lag wise. I went to get some fillings fixed at the dentist and began to fall asleep. You know it's bad when you have the ability to sleep in a dentist's office! After a quick adjustment (that really hasn't done anything to help the pain, might I add), I hit the Snap on Woodroffe. I wasn't quite sure what the workout would bring... for a while, I wasn't even planning on working out, but I'd realized that I'd forgotten my iPod at the gym and luckily someone turned it in, so I wanted to pick it up.

I decided on my negative split/tempo run for a tough workout. Figured another easy run would only make me sleepier, so I attempted to feel gung ho about this run. If I haven't mentioned it, my negative split run starts with me at 5.8 mph, then jumps to 6.0, 5.9, 6.1, 6.0, 6.2, 6.1, etc. until I get up to 6.5 mph with a speed change every 0.25 miles. Today's run went stunningly and, with a 0.25 mi warmup and cool-down included (plus a hard extra tenths of a mile at 7.1 towards the end), I finished with 3.75 miles. I was super pleased with this! I further killed my legs with a leg/lower core workout.

The total for this week is a little over 6 miles with one weights session. I've decided for the next four weeks, I will be doing 10 mpw (at least) and 2 weight sessions/week (at least). I've printed out charts so that every 4 weeks, my goal changes. The next 4 weeks' goal will be at least 13 mpw and 2 weight sessions again (eventually upping it to the 20 mpw and 3 weight sessions I'd like by next spring). It seems like a nice structured, yet unstructured (aka no set running plan) way to stay motivated and hopefully injury-free.

I'm freaking out a bit about the stress my upcoming assignments/exams/moving will have on my workouts, so we'll see how well this whole "plan" plays out.

Might I add that men's washrooms are disgusting. A chick was in the women's one when I went to change, so I went to the men's and did not want to touch one freaking thing in there. I was going to toilet paper the seat to go for a quick pre-run pee and, when I put the seat down, there was dried pee everywhere from previous users. I don't think I'm ready to live with a guy! I was too freaked out and eventually just waited for the women's washroom... which smelled of lovely fragrance and was the epitome of clean. I like my gender.

Happy trails!

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