Toes hurt today from Running

Here is a quick update on my running. In case you don’t know, I am following a 10k training plan for a Turkey Trot race. I am hoping for a pace of 8, but not sure I’ll make that, unless good tapering and race day magic help me!

Two days ago I did a treadmill workout: warmup, some strides, then 5×800 @ 8.2 mph (pace of 7:24 for 3:42, which basically equals an 800).

For the treadmill sets, I was a wuss and had to stop midway and catch my breath. WAH! I felt sucky about that, so I ran outside for a bit hoping to do a pace of 8 on the 1 mile stretch of road near my house. I was trying to go at a pace I could hold for a 10k, but I pushed hard at the end trying to make it in under 8 minutes. Didn’t make it. 🙁

Must remember Kaizen: Improvements come in tiny increments with much persistence and hard work.

Also, I must remember to keep thinking that I am a great runner. I think,therefore I am. I love that existentialist crap!

My treadmill is pretty cool (Proform 860 quiet – got it on Craigslist for $280). It lets me program my workout into my computer, then my computer controls the speed and incline. Click image at right to see a screencapture of today’s workout.

Today, I woke up with a sharp pain in the toes of my right foot – near the three smallest toes. Last run was two days ago where I did speedwork on the treadmill. I was trying to lean and land on the balls of my foot. I think I may have landed on my toes rather than my balls (hehe), which is probably bad. I found an article at coolrunning.com which describes my pain exactly. Doesn’t sound too serious. Here is a pain diagram of where it hurts:

I’ve been working on getting the slight forward lean and landing on the balls thing right for a long time (like, um, two years when I first got the Pose Running book)! Now I am also adding in higher feet on the recovery cycle of my stride. Gee that sounds like swimming lingo! It takes me soooooo long to learn new sporty things. Luckily, I have tons of persistence, so will keep tri-ing until I get it.

It’s too icky to bike today, so I was going to do my long run. Maybe I should skip it. I’ll see how my toes feel later on. I will definitely stretch today. Been lazy about that again. Bad, very bad!