easy 10K

I wasn't sure I was up to an easy 10K this morning, but my coach said I should try it, and I trust him. My foot was not hurting, but I felt paranoid when I walked out the door. It was 44F and threatening rain, but the rain held off until I finished, and it felt really nice outside - very enjoyable.

I chose a fairly flat route. It was a bit downhill to start and a bit uphill at the end, but the middle 8K was pretty flat. I didn't want any extra stress on my right foot. I decided to stop and stretch my calf frequently to try and prevent a recurrence of Saturday's horrible pain. I stopped after the first mile (1.6K) and then probably stopped another 4-5 times during the 10K, for about 30 seconds each time.

That strategy seemed to work - I didn't have any pain while I was out there, just some warmth and general added awareness of that part of my foot.

After the first mile I was feeling pretty good so decided to see if I could shoot for a 6:30 pace; my coach wants me to try and do that on my easy days if possible. Things continued to feel fine, and so during the last 1-1.5K (the uphill part), I pushed a little to keep the pace.

I finished in 65:45 (6:35/k) with an average HR of 140; the time does NOT include my stretching stops, so I guess I'd have been a bit slower w/o them.

I stretched a LOT and used the stick on my calf. I wore shoes with a 1.5 inch heel to work as well, because a small heel is supposed to help with peroneus longus tendonitis. I even brought the stick to work and have been using it periodically. Whatever the case, it seems to be working. I'm doing OK - no pain so far. Well, I take that back - my shoes w/the 1.5 inch heel are giving me a blister on my left foot, so now that it's lunch I'm trading them for my RW shoes instead. Usually the shoes don't give me blisters (I've had them a long time) but I also haven't worn them since I injured my foot last summer. Anyway, so far, so good, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a pain-free afternoon as well.

Oh, and it POURED on me while walking from the parking lot into work. At least it didn't rain while I was racewalking :).