Tuesday 11/10, 7.5 miles - no foot pain

I was a bit apprehensive about my run today and how my foot was going to feel. I was contemplating waiting until the evening to run when I came home so I could run at the park and do the majority of the run on the dirt path, but with my work schedule I was concerned that I might get home late and find and excuse to skip the run. I have two different pairs of shoes that I train in - a lightweight trainer that I wear for hills and speed workouts and various other runs and another normal weight shoe and I tend to alternate between them. I've been planning on wearing the lightweight trainer model for my upcoming marathons and I've run my last couple of long runs in them to try to work out a good sock/shoe combo. I didn't have any foot pain or problems on my 20 mile long run on Saturday. I've had the other shoes for a little longer, but I'm not sure if one pair has more mileage on it than the other. I brought my heavier shoes for the run and I decided I try to go for a run outside. If my foot hurt, I'd know that it wasn't an issue with my other shoes and I'd head back to our gym and ride a bike or workout on the elliptical or something like that.

I chose a route where I knew that I could actually run the majority of the route on grass or dirt along the edge of the sidewalks or roads. Running on the grass along the roads has its own set of hazards. I have to watch out for various dangers like uneven terrain, fire ant hills, muddy ground, snakes, unexploded land mines, tree roots, and bugs among other things. Fortunately it hadn't rained up here and so running on the grass was actually feasible today. I ran 7.5 miles in 52 minutes and never felt any pain in my foot although I was almost certain I would feel a sharp pain once I was at the farthest point from the office about 3.5 miles away. This afternoon I've wondered if I am feeling some tenderness in my foot every once in a while or if I'm just imagining things since I'm paranoid about an overuse injury. Tomorrow I'm supposed to run my first "What Sean would run if he were training for the marathon right now" workout. I think I'll try running it in the morning at the park and wear my heavier shoes since they seem to have more cushioning and running on the dirt doesn't seem to bother my foot, but if my foot starts to hurt I'll cut the workout short and spend a few days cross training and try to avoid a long layoff from running.