A little bit of Ugh and thinking ahead.

So, I'm sitting here wallowing in something resembling self pity.

I want to get out running, but I don't want to risk re-injuring my foot.  It still hurts when I walk around.  It's getting better.  I can can curl my toes back with a minimum of pain in the top of the foot, but there's still pain.  It also seems slightly swollen too.  Frustrating.

I never did get an xray on my foot, but based on the opinion of two doctor friends, I most likely cracked my 3rd metatarsal.  They also opined that there isn't a great deal you can do for an injury like that.  Stabilize it as best you can and try hard not to do anything that makes it hurt.  A walking boot might have helped initially, but for reasons long and complicated I'm not a huge fan of those things.

I would say I'll wait until I'm pain free before I start running again, but one thing I've acknowledged during my 41st trip around the sun is that there is rarely a day where I'm truly pain free.  Something always aches.  That is the way of things.  If I don't have pain I can directly associate with the Blues Cruise injury, I'll try get out and run a few easy miles next Tuesday.  The way things are going, I think that's a reasonable expectation.

Looking ahead, I've decided that I'm going to register for the Leadville 100 the minute registration opens.  I wouldn't be surprised if this year their slots fill very quickly.  My friend from the Steamboat 50 suggested I flagellate with a different 100.  One which is more scenic and less commercial.  Under normal access circumstances I would absolutely agree with him, but given that I live in a location where the constellations are all screwy I need to choose a race which has friends and family close by.


Anyway, my first steps in preparation for the Leadville 100 will involve an attempt to get faster.  I'm going to focus my first 26 weeks of training for Leadville on getting faster over the 10K and Marathon distances.  Once I've got a "speed" base established, I'll work on climbing strength and long distances with a hope of logging at least 4, 100 mile weeks in the time leading up to Leadville 2012.

When I started this blog, I had no intention of ever running 100 miles, but for some reason I chose a background image I took while doing a training run for the Steamboat 50.  The photograph was taken on the summit ridge of Mount Massive and off in the distance is Leadville, Colorado.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon Colorado.
J