Abort, Abort!

Week of April 21, 2013:

Sunday: Bike ride to the lab and HEB for edible provisions

Monday: Short evening run (20 minutes around the neighborhood)

Tuesday: Off, I think (I came home and just wanted to cook dinner.  Is that so wrong?)

Wednesday: Bike ride commute

Thursday: Bike ride commute

Friday: Attempted to run.  Abort, abort!

Saturday: Morning run (25 minutes)

Minutes run this week: 45.

Before last week, I can remember just one time when I quit a running work-out.  It was my senior year season of cross-country, and we were doing a track work-out when my legs just could not keep up the way they had been all season.  It turned out that I was injured, one of those stealth injuries that runners sometimes get.  It wasn’t a stress fracture, but it was the prelude to such an injury—my femur had started to weaken in a particular spot.  I’ll never forget the deep pain I felt when the trainer pushed down on my leg when I was sitting on the examining table.  It was stunning how much it hurt, and in that moment I knew: this is not good.  It was the end of my running season and a disappointing end to my cross-country career.

Last week I had my second work-out quit, and it started with this adorable pair of new shoes.

Adorable, right?  So pretty, so purple, so perfect for summer!

Yes, adorable and deadly.  Check out the wounds these pretty shoes left on my heels after just one wearing.  (My left heel got slashed too.)

These shoes just shredded my feet.  I also had some wounds on the top of my right foot, one which required a band-aid.  I was really surprised by how bad the first day with these shoes was.  I wore them around the house, and they felt just fine.  Two days later and they destroyed my feet on their first outing.

Later that week, I set out on Friday evening for a run.  I was wearing my normal running socks and shoes, but I was not wearing band-aids on my heels (foolish!), and as soon as I started to run, the pain was just awful.  Abort, abort!  I thought about hobbling back inside to put on band-aids, but I just decided to end the run and cook dinner instead.  Besides the fact that I was excited about cooking dinner (baked eggs in tomato sauce, in case you were wondering), I also thought that the extra healing time might be good for my poor feet.  I promised myself I would run on Saturday, and ba-da!  I did.  Two runs and three bike rides this week—not too shabby for someone who feels like she’s fallen off the fitness bandwagon lately.  I’ll talk more about that soon.  For now, check out this awesome GIANT turtle I saw on Saturday morning when I came back from my run!  (Pardon the trash next to him; we have a litterbug problem in College Station.  People keep messing with Texas!)

And with that, I’m finally caught up on this blog.  Whew!

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