19 Days Until Seattle

This was an uneventful week. I have been feeling the effects of the racing and training, so on the advice of some fellow runners, I took Wednesday off. It might have helped; I am not sure. Just to mix it up, I swapped my Thursday lunch road run for an evening trail run with the group from Vertical Runner. That was fun. It was a big group, probably 15 or more, and we did not exactly stay together because of the different levels of runners. On Saturday, I ran with the usual Lock 29 crew on a great morning. Sunday was the Solon run with the SERC crew. I did four slow miles before the group started at 8:00 AM, then the rest of the run averaged around 7:30 pace. Total miles for the week: 71.3 miles. Not where it should taking a day off kept me under 80 miles. Next week, I will begin tapering, so the miles will be reduced.

------------------------------------------------------------

Foot pain and swelling: About two weeks ago, I noticed soreness on the top of my left foot, right in the area of the third metatarsal. That is the long bone right in the middle. I continued to run because the pain was not too intense. It did not seem to be getting any worse, but also has not been getting any better. After the trail run on Thursday, I noticed that the slight swelling had become a bit more swelling. Again, the pain was not too bad, so I went for a slow Friday run with no real problems. The trail run in Saturday was more of a work-out for my foot. Toward the end of that run, the feeling was noticeably less comfortable. By Sunday morning, I did not feel too bad, so I went on my run as usual. After that one, in the shower I noticed the swelling had worsened, with some puffiness in my toes. By Sunday evening, I was having a little pain when walking, especially after sitting for a while, and the swelling had not gone down. I got an ice-pack and wrapped in around my foot. (I know...I probably should have been doing this from when I first noticed the swelling.) I have no idea if this will turn out to be nothing, but it definitely has moved beyond the 'ignore it and it will go away' stage.