A Passion for Running

Today I had my first at work lunch run since the injury and of 2006.

While I certainly enjoy running with other people, there is really nothing that compares to these solitary runs. I love them. They happen mid-day, so the sunlight is rejuvenating. They happen in Edmonton’s amazing river valley, so they are packed full of inspiring beauty. They contain the best quality alone time I can possibly imagine and they are the mostly likely time for me to achieve flow – most closely associated by folks like you and I as ‘runner’s high‘. Finally, there’s that after-a-run shower. There’s nothing – absolutely nothing like a hot shower after a sweaty run in Canada’s fresh, crisp winter air. Nothing.

I’m still nervous about the foot and set out today thinking I’d only run for 20 minutes as I had on New Year’s. The day after that first run, the muscles and tendons in my feet and lower legs were quite sore and it worried me. I guess I’ve gained a bit of a paranoia since the injury but that’s a good thing if it will stop me from making stupid mistakes like I have in the past.

Paranoia aside, the run was thoroughly enjoyable and, once I was out there, it was easy to convince myself to turn a 10 minute out and back into a 3o minute round trip.

The bad (but not surprising) news is that my endurance and strength have suffered considerably. I guess two months off running will do that to ya. That’s OK. I know that as quickly as one can lose those things, one can also gain them back.

The good news is that my form has not suffered much at all. In fact, in one way, it’s even improved. If you are a regular reader, you may recall that prior to getting injured, I had discovered bad pronation on my right foot and was working on correcting it. While I was injured, I continued to work on that problem. What I had found was that I’d been running and walking on the outside of my right foot. So, while I was injured, I concentrated on walking on my right foot as I do on my left – with even distribution of weight.

And it worked! Today, I was not fighting my landings and was making nice, even contact with the ground. The quickness of pulling my foot off the ground has diminished, but I am exceedingly happy about fixing that biomechanical problem.

The journey to good running form continues…