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Friday, April 23, 2010

Accepting setbacks and forging ahead

Yeah, not so good with the blogging. :D  However, am ROCKING the running, even if it's only in my own mind.

Had a rough couple of weeks, got beat down by a pinky blister that refused to go away then, just as I finally got in a couple of runs in, I was beat down again by some weirdo cold/flu. Two weeks of reduced mileage; I was tweaking hard. HARD. I'd get jealous of random runners as I passed them in my car, not-so-secretly wishing to be in their shoes instead of mine. Then came the irrational fear part: what if I couldn't regain my former mileage glory? What if that whole cut back week theory was a LIE?!?!

Now obviously I know better, but still... I am rather amused how irrational I was getting over something so minor. But as everyone with a schedule to keep finds when delays set in, the brain comes up with extremely creative ways to magnify the situation and turn it into a freak show.

Needless to say, I did get over it. Probably ran a bit sooner than I should have but well, I can only sit still for so long.

Now that my brain has calmed down, I have turned my wicked ways towards tormenting my feet. Heh.

Picked up a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers in groovy fuschia, although have yet to get them outside other than a cursory run around my back yard, giggling like a schoolgirl. My gnarly pinky toes haven't adapted yet but given my masochistic tendencies it won't be too much longer until I'm tooling around the paths in them. Grass only though; my feet aren't very fleshy. :(  Apparently this is something to adjust slowly to, so given my complete and utter lack of patience this will be a new challenge.

And just to make things more complicated for my feet... I went and had a custom orthotic made. Feels like heaven! I've read mixed things about orthotics but I like to try things for myself, even if it turns into an epic fail. So far so good though. Going to take them on a 20k trail run tomorrow so we'll see how much I love them tomorrow night! Haha (OK, I am not supposed to run this long in them tomorrow but see above paragraph for reasoning of bad behaviour) :D

Happy running everyone!
Pam

2 comments:

  1. So. I'm confused. You got a pair of VFF's AND Custom orthotics? And then you are going to test the Orthotics on a 20k run? Just be careful with the orthotics, with the first sign of pain, take them out. The Orthotics erase any shock absorption that the shoes provide on runs. I know, I threw my Orthotics away a year ago and haven't looked back... Good luck and please remember, just take them out in the first sign of pain... maight be sooner than you think...

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  2. Yep. I tend to do things in extremes. The orthotic was great, but I don't think I'll use tomorrow just to see how things feel. I'm excited about the Vibrams but I don't think I can build up my feet in time to use them on my ultra so they are more for training purposes this year. Hopefully I can strengthen my feet enough to ditch the orthotics. :)

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