Listing myself with a injury........

So I have been procrastinating on making a decision on if I would do the Trinidad to Clam beach run. Let's review a bit. Not long ago I was complaining of some foot soreness. I allowed myself some time to rest, but I was eager to get back at it to train for Clam beach run. As soon as my soreness felt better I went on a 4 mile beach run. It turns out this was a bad choice on my part. I should have allowed more time to rest. What I thought was just soreness turned into more because I did not rest it long enough.

Many that know me will be surprised as it is rare that I injure myself. I tend to do things in a balanced manor, and I'm pretty good at listening to my body. This one I simply did not read properly. Combine that with the pressure of getting ready for the organized run. My first organized run, and looking back I did not allow myself enough time to prepare. Or I should have not pushed myself to do so many miles in such a short time period. Wanting to participate in the event was probably just a bad idea as a new BF runner. Actually I thought the first month of training went well, but I started to push myself too hard the second month......

Ok so you want to know. What is your injury ? I'm listing myself with a first metatarsal hairline stress fracture. That's the bone behind my big toe on the right side. With that said the injury is fairly minor. I can extend, and hyper extend the toe. Though it is tender when I move it in that manner. I never even really had pain, and who knows if I'm accurate on my assessment. I just know I need more rest, and running today won't help heal it. Clearly whatever I had initially was irritated by my recent 4 mile beach run.

It was not until yesterday that I assessed myself with this status. Prior to yesterday I had done very little to care for it. All week I was walking BF, and using min shoes at work. Though I did make some small effort to keep less body weight off the great toe. Though the injury has not really effected simple walking other then this small change I made to my gait to help allow it to heal. Once Friday came around I stopped going barefoot, and used a sandal I had around with a fairly thick sole. I also have a pair of old school simple shoes which I will probably wear at work in the upcoming week. Doing these things will allow the foot to rest a bit more. The added sole will take some stress off the foot, and allow it to heal faster. The injury actually feels much better today, but I plan to give it numerous more days of rest. In fact I have taken a day off to extend my weekend a extra day. So now that I have identified this I'm giving myself three straight days of added rest, and more focused care. So yeah no Clam beach run for me today. Ironically my neighbor running shod injured himself as well so won't be doing the run either.

For me this is a minor set back. Am I disappointed in myself ? Of course I am. I did not read the soreness symptoms properly, and paid for it a bit more. Though still fairly minor. Not doing the organized run event today is the least of my concerns. Not reading properly my feet talking to me bothers me more. Though I have been very grateful for this BF running experience. I have learned things about myself, and I have even fine tuned my likes/dislikes for running. Or as a BF advocate in general. Also living "in the moment" is much more important to me. So I accept the terms I have been given, and the lessons will be noted. Considering how darn active I am I really have no room to complain about this.....

So what's ahead for me ? Well the priority coming up in a few months is the annual Kinetic sculpture race. Usually this is a very time consuming project, but this year we are using the same theme as last year. So I won't need to spend as much prep time this season. The race is last weekend of May.
I am also thinking about the Avenue of the giants run. This is in early May, and I may consider the 10K running under the redwoods. Now I know how much time I need to prepare. Though I also have to train on the kinetic vehicle as well. So I'm not sure if I will do the run, or not this year. I don't plan to do kinetic race in 2012 so I hope to do the ave instead. If anyone wants to run under the redwood tress you may want to consider the ave.
As I have already stated beach BF running will certainly be in my future. I have a strong desire to trail BF run as well. Though this is something I need to feel out still in Arcata's Redwood park. They have lots of fun single track trails that are dirt based, but interconnected with gravel roads. So I just need to take a closer look at the gravel roads to see how my soles like it, or if I can run along side, etc.
I'm also interested in BF backpacking this summer, and day hiking. Continue my unconventional weight training at the independent warehouse gym in town. So as you can see I have many things ahead to look forward to. Many of the things barefoot related, and a little mixture of things that are not. As I stated in yesterdays post it's always hard to balance everything. Some days I even mountain bike. So I just have to look ahead a little, and set some goals. Basically I really like variety. Advocating bare feet will be a big part of what I do in the months ahead, and I'll have many things to discuss in this blog about bare footing. Most exciting my daily activities will be BF outside of work. So while the minor injury is a bummer. I have lots of fun stuff to look forward to after the short recovery period !

Life goes on.......