Broken Toes

12 longs days ago, I broke my toe. It is my "ring" toe on my left foot. It was a tragic accident. So violent and heart wrenching. That's a lie. I stubbed me toe on my dog's bone. It was one of those huge pig femurs. It's a dinosaur bone! It didn't move, and my toe cracked.

This is now my 3rd broken toe over 10 years. Not too bad of a track record for how clumsy I am. Anyway, Greg convinced me to go to the doctor. He wanted to make sure I didn't injure myself further by training for our half marathon. So I went and she was wonderful. She said I could run in 7 -10 days, with no problems.

So, it's day 12. I've been in St Croix, USVI for 4 days now and I feel like a slug. I feel bloated. I've eaten too much. My diet isn't going so well. I needed to do something.

I hit the trail at the Buccaneer Resort. It's really a golf cart path, but it works. It's a hilly course with an amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean. What a beautiful site.

My toe did OK, except for the up hills. It helped me practice my flat footed technique for running. Running flat footed did help. However, after a 30 minute, slow, run I was finished. Now, I'm off to fly into Hurricane Bill. What a great way to start a night flight! I'm stoked!

RAGBRAI Recovery

My body has returned! I went for a 3 mile run today, but it felt so good, I decided to run for at least 45 minutes. That went a little longer, 47 minutes. It was about 4.3+ miles in total.

Finally, my arms didn't feel week. My breathing seemed normal. My legs still felt strong.

It took 1 1/2 weeks, but I think I've pretty much recovered from RAGBRAI!

Now, I need to remember that I shouldn't push too hard. I want to go out and run again tomorrow. However, I don't want to back track. So, tomorrow will be yoga or an easy bike ride. Although, I'm not sure if I'm ready to get on my bike again. We'll see.

Running after RAGBRAI

Today, I went for a 5K run on the path just in front of our house. I just wanted to get moving again. I still feel tired after RAGBRAI. I feel almost lazy. I just feel drained, weak, and generally exhausted.

It was tough. My legs felt heavy. However, they felt strong too. My legs were not what held me back.

My lungs felt heavy too. It almost felt like I had a cold. At the end of the run, I realized that the issue with my lungs was probably that I didn't breath too deeply when I was biking. Now that I'm running again, I'm taking deep breaths. I need to train my lungs again.

My arms were also failing me too! They felt like jello. They felt like lead weights. The felt like they were weighing me down. I was hard to swing them and get a good stride.

During the last .65 mile, I turned into the wind. That head wind DID NOT help me. It was a struggle. I tried to let me legs do the work, since they seemed to be the only strong part of my body left.

At the end, I started to walk but had to quickly stop. I started to feel very light headed. I had no idea how hard I had pushed myself. Apparently, too hard. At least I can say I ran 5K today. That's better than the week before. Maybe my energy will return soon.