Sitting around waiting for a member of upper management to log into my application so I can profile and locate an Authentication bug.
Got bit by a dog on my run yesterday. I wonder when the next full moon is? I hope on the weekend so that I can sleep in the next day.
Some eighties fashions should be left in the eighties.
I subscribe to the Darwinistic approach to playground rules. Those that get hurt and complain go home.
Running by a bunch of evenly spaced spray-painted dots on the sidewalk. I kept hearing wokka, wokka, wokka. Never found a power pellet.
About to make a mistake.
Date: 201004151630 Thursday, April 15 1630
Terrain: Colorado Springs streets.
Plan: Run barefoot for 1 mile then run 2 miles in shoes for a total of 3 miles.
Reality: Ran 1.2 miles barefoot then ran 2.41 in shoes for a total of 3.41 miles.
Effort: Ran at a normal pace for a run of that distance. This was especially heartening given the details from below.
Pain: Middle toes, shins, ankles calves. Both middle toes are raw. The left toe lost quite a bit of skin and is in a lot of pain. It may prevent my future planned barefoot run on Saturday. Both shin muscles a little sore (though not like shin splints). Ankles and calves sore.
Description: I started my run on the corner of Aeroplaza Dr. and N. Newport Rd., Colorado Springs, CO. I ran east on Aeroplaza to Aviation Way on the sidewalk. The sidewalk felt great except for a small portion that was an unpaved driveway. I felt the difference in my stride as it shifted from a hard cadence-running heel-strike to a more agile forefoot landing. I felt more nimble and I was having fun running around a little, running up the sides of small embankments, hopping from one side of the sidewalk to the other to avoid gravel and, at points, running balanced on the curb along the side of the road when cars passed.
Crossing the streets was a bit painful due to the asphalt as I ran South on the sidewalk on Aviation Way and realized that the sand and gravel that they put on the roads in the winter was built up on the road and all over the sidewalk. This caused more pain on my feet and I had to pay close attention to my path avoid the gravel when I could.
I moved over into the street after passing Fountain and I was noticing that the gravel was getting stuck to my toes (my left middle toe especially). I scraped it of here and there until I finally stopped (around 1.2 miles) to pull a rock off my foot and realized that I had scraped the skin off the bottom of my left middle toe and it was exposed. I decided to switch into my shoes to finish my run. I went a little slower after that until I hit my turnaround point. My left toe was in a lot of pain and I could feel myself compensating and falling back to a more mid-foot / heel strike. It hurt too much to run on my forefeet due to the toes. I started to notice some soreness in my shins around Fountain on the return trip.
I ran West on Fountain until I hit N. Newport Rd. and I took N. Newport Rd. back to my start point.
If I were to do the first run over again I would run 0.5 miles then switch to shoes for the middle part of the run then back to barefoot at the end.
Update: The next morning both middle toes still hurt. Only the left one is torn open. My ankles and shins are still sore.
My Running
When I got out of the Army I said that I hated running and I would never run again. Well… I realized over time that I needed to do some aerobic activity and running was the best exercise for me. It required little equipment (shoes, shorts and a shirt) and that reduced my ability to make excuses for not doing it. So, I have been running since August 2009. My pace started very slow (12 min mile) and I hated it but by December 2009 I was running at a consistent 10 min mile pace. Around mid-December I started getting horrible shin splints which caused me to overcompensate, starting some knee problems and I had to take a week off. This made me realize that while I wasn’t loving the run, I really missed my runs when I didn’t get one.
Hint: I’m not the lady in the front.
In February I started running with the Jack Quinn’s Running Club and in March, I ran my first real race, the 5k for St. Patrick’s Day (25:13, pace 8:08). I’m really enjoying the running but I am looking for more events to push myself.
Born to Run
Two weeks ago, on the advice of a friend, I picked up the book Born to Run.
Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.
Here is a video of Christopher McDougall talking about Born to Run.
Reading this book really motivated me and my next Quinn’s Run felt great. Unfortunately my shin splints started coming back again and I started to feel the beginning of my knee problems from December. This made me think about Born to Run again, the synopsis on Barnes and Noble starts this way:
Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
The underlying story of the book is about why we, as a modern culture, run wrong and what we can do about it. The solution seems to be that we need to ditch our shoes and run with less support.
Barefoot Running
One of the ideas promoted in the book is running barefoot. The basic thought is that we are designed to run long distances and our shoes have been masking feedback and causing injuries for years. The solution is to ditch our shoes and run like our ancestors did. So, I’m going to try this out. And you can follow my progress in my barefoot running category.
Smiling at a Twizzler found in my lunchbox.
Mary has scored three times this soccer game. Some of them for her team!