Back to blogging (and running)

I've not blogged in a while because I haven't run much lately. The pain in my left foot persisting, I decided to take a week off from running, to do more cross training, and to reduce my running schedule to at most every other day (if not three days per week).

Besides reducing my schedule, I've begun to integrate one-minute walk breaks into my runs. This thanks to Jeff Galloway's Book on Running, a wonderful, short, but jam-packed book on the topic. Galloway has achieved some notoriety for his advocacy of walk breaks, but, at least to this layperson, he seems to have the physiology on his side. (In fact, one of the book's many strengths is his accessible, clear, and concise discussions of physiology.) Among his goals is to help runners to run longer, better, and, most importantly (at least from my perspective), injury-free.

This past Wednesday I returned to running for the first time in over a week. I still had a bit of pain in my left arch, but I decided that I'd not take another week break without trying my foot out a few more times. I ran four miles in the evening with one-minute walk breaks every four minutes.

Today, I had intended to undertake what for me would have been a long run: eight miles. Because of the distance and the heat and humidity, I decided to take more frequent walk breaks. I alternated, then, between three minutes of running and one minute of walking. Unfortunately, I was unable to run more than an hour or five miles. This was due either to the heat or to running at too fast a pace (twelve-minute miles instead of thirteen- or fourteen-minute ones).

Live and learn. Next long run I'll try to slow down and to run earlier than 9 A.M. on a hot summer day.