The Weekly Weigh-In

Let The Healing Begin!
No lie, I am soooo tired of feeling gimpy from the ankles down! I just want to go out and be able to run for however long I'm supposed to on any given day, and be able to suck up whatever inevitable hurt comes with the miles. This past week has sucked for running in my world! Ok, that's a lie. At first it was great - I had a great 8-miler last Sunday, and my best ever Tuesday Track Day. But I did 6 on Wednesday and from then until now, it's been all downhill:

I barely ran 2 miles on Thursday, I took Friday and Saturday off (Sat. is supposed to be an easy 3 miler with the dogs, and then a 2-3 mile tempo run) and then today, I cut my 10 miler down to 7. And all because of my stupid blistered feet.

Don't Let This Happen To You!
I did, however, learn some things. First, I learned that it's ok to listen to my body. I mean, really, what would another 3 miles do for me in the long run? I still have 6 months until this Marathon goes down and it's better that I didn't kill myself today - it could only hurt me for the rest of the week. Secondly, if I thought I needed new shoes two weeks ago, why on earth did I wait? Yesterday, I went and bought 2 new pairs of Asics (they have proven to work the best for me over the yeras) so that I can alternate between them. As I mentioned the other day, this not only is good for you feet, but you get more out of the life of your shoes. Thirdly, I learned how to properly take care of my feet the next time this happens (hopefully it won't!) Please, learn from me:


The tools necessary


The end result

Not only did I buy new shoes yesterday, I bought Neosporin, NewSkin, that medical/athletic tape, band-aids (just to replace all the ones that I've stolen out of our first aid kit because that's what I've been using on my feet in my work shoes. Side note: band-aids on the bottom of your feet are futile), gauze, and superglue. Yes, superglue. The blister on the bottom of my right foot broke open (you guys saw that - are you tired of nasty pictures of my feet yet?) and the best thing to do is glue that sucker back up. Did you know that super glue was actually invented for the guys in the trenches in Vietnam? True story. Way less cumbersome than bandages, no? Anyway, to achieve the end result, this is what you have to do:


1) Clean the heck outta your wounds. I used wet-naps that profess to kill 99.9% of germs. Soap & water would work just fine too.

2) Glue your blister shut. Let it dry.

3) Spray NewSkin all over it (this is probably redundant, but I did NOT want that bad boy breaking open on me today). Let it dry.

4) Neosporin all over the place in question. Liberally. And often.

5) Place gauze over the blisters and keep it there with the tape.

6) Wrap the whole thing up. I used Johnson & Johnson FirstAid Hurt-Free Wrap. That stuff is amazing. Tape the wrap.

Voila! You're ready to go running. There's just one problem - that's a whole lotta padding in your shoes. I ran my first 3 miles with the dogs and then dropped them off at the house. I was glad I had an excuse, because my toes were HURTING! Maybe some of you have experienced numb toes while running before. It has to do with the circulation getting cut off to your little tootsies. Being that I had wrapped up my feet, then put on socks, then laced up my shoes too tight, I was really hurting. For those that have never experienced this phenomenon, it goes like this: first, you notice that your toes feel a little funny - numb, even. Then, not too much longer later, they burn and hurt. Then, they practically scream up at you, "What on earth are you doing?! We need some blood down here!" So anyway, I stopped for the dogs, and then loosened up my laces considerably. It helped a lot, but I still tapped out after 7.

Enough of that. But I would like to point out, that the reason I called it quits was NOT because of my blisters, it was because I had to wrap my stupid feet up so much, that it caused it's own problems. Whatever. Tomorrow is a cross-training day, so it won't be a problem for me tomorrow.

The Weigh-In
In waaaaay happier news, the scale smiled up at me this morning. I seriously get nervous before stepping on that damn thing. It's the same feeling I get before I do my track workout. What if I suck? What if I haven't lost anything? Doubt & Anxiety are two constant companions of mine, but I really wish they would loosen up a bit. I live on the beach...in Hawaii for crying out loud! Ease up, eh?

Well, much like my track run earlier this week, the scale was a pleasant surprise:

140.2. I'm going to go ahead and round that down to 140.0 and say that I've lost 5 lbs since this whole shenanigans has started. 5 lbs in a month-ish? I'll take it! Now, that raises the question of how much do I want to lose. And to be honest, I haven't really thought about it. I'll have to reflect on that and get back to you.

The Recap
I had a great feeling about this week until I hit Wednesday. I took a look at the plan and figured I'm about at week 4. The miles are distributed differenlty, but I ran about 20 miles this week + one XTraining day, and week 4 of the plan calls for 17-22 miles. So, that's fine. As I may have mentioned before, the plan is 16 weeks long, and I have considerably more time than that, so for the time being, flexibility is very much ok. Miles are important, not much else is right now.

A Handy Little Tip
I've had some people ask me about this Nike+iPod situation. I still very much question it's accuracy. But apart from that, I've been asked, "Don't you have to have Nike shoes for that to work?" Well, yes. You're supposed to. But Nike's don't work for me. I only ran in them in high school, but that's because labels mattered to me back then and Nike was "cool". I've heard people RAVE about their Nike running shoes, and I've had people tell me that they refuse to run in them. I'm not totally opposed, but I just find that Asics work the best for me. So, where do I put that little sensor?





I guess you can buy some neoprene pouch that you can lace on with your shoelaces, but why go through all that trouble? A simple little incision and you're good to go!

Whew! This has been a bit long-winded, eh? And I feel like I could go on! But, I digress...I'm going to finish this glass o' wine and make me a salad and dance around the house with the dogs.

As always, thank you for reading!