I was decently consistent with my running through the first five months of the year, racking up 312 miles and progressing nicely month-to-month until, for some reason, (aka life) I ended up taking almost exactly a month off.  Sometimes time can get away from you and what seems like a week or two is actually 4 or 5.  From mid-May to mid-June I ran zero miles.  Seeking to correct that, and figuring that if I had worked my way up to 21 miles as my longest run to date, and that the 10-ish mile mark was a relatively easy thing for me to hit, I decided to knock out an easy 10 miles. 

The running was easy enough, but I managed to bang up my right foot on the rocks enough that the 2017 injury I had returned.  It wasn’t as bad, and as long as I wore decently padded shoes it didn’t hurt too bad.  Unlike in 2017, where I managed to mess it up bad enough during a move from one house to another that it took well over a year to fully heal and scared me enough that I didn’t run at all.  I think in that case, part of the issue was that I was working in an environment where legit dress shoes were required, and the thin leather soles, and relatively narrower lasts kept my feet in a position where it was hard to stay off the injured area.  It probably didn’t help that I forgot to grab a pair of hiking shoes/boots for the camping trip to Mesa Verde with the kids, and ended up spending the whole trip cruising around in my Merrell Trail Gloves. 

This time around, walking down stairs, or on hard surfaces without shoes on caused it to flare up something fierce.  I went back to trying to stay off it as much as I could and always cruising around with shoes on.  As long as I had something with some padding and a decent sole on it, I was pretty good.  About a week later, I was able to do the Southwest Ridge route of Gray’s Peak and over to Torrey’s Peak without too much trouble in my well-used, but still very comfortable Lowa Zephyrs.  There were a couple times where I mis-stepped and landed right where I didn’t want to on my right foot, but the boots were stout enough to mostly protect my foot and I was just a little sore after the 8 mile round trip.   

I’ve been wanting to get back into riding my mountain bike since I’m so close to a lot of the front range area trails, so I figured that might be a decent way to keep my heart and legs working while my foot heals.  My riding shoes were a 30 year old pair of neon blue and yellow Sidi Dominators with almost no tread left on them, so I figured I was about due for a new pair.  I’m not racing anymore and I’m definitely looking for comfort over pure pedaling efficiency, so I picked up a new pair of Pearl Izumi X-Alp Summit shoes and mounted my pedal cleats as far to the rear as I could.  Got a few rides in without any foot issues, so I have that going for me.  The saddle sore on the other hand…

On July 12 I decided to try another shorter run with my softest Merrell Moab Flight shoes.  The first few steps when I kicked off were kinda timid, and I was half expecting to turn around before I left the block.  Fortunately, it went well on the smooth paved route I took.  No foot issues, so hopefully that’ll keep on healing up.  I really like the extra padding in the Moab Flights and they’re only 2oz heavier, according to the Merrell website than their Trail Glove, which I use for most of my around town stuff when I’m not on the motorcycle.   

Overall, the 21 mile run and consistently being able to step out the door and run 10 miles was the highlight of the first (almost) half of the training year.  I don’t think I’ve ever run that far before, so that was a pretty cool feeling for me.  I’ve also started hitting the gym at work again and starting to build up my actual strength since that’s kind of important, and I don’t want to end up looking like one of these endurance runners that almost resembles a skeleton with skin stretched over it.  Maybe I’ll talk about that a little later, but it’s definitely not something I can afford to do.