WEEK 5: JAN 29 – FEB 4, 12.1 miles

2/4/07, Sun: 2.5 miles, 27 minutes. Although my cardio conditioning suffered slightly for not having run in three days, I felt great otherwise. For the first time in a very long time, I had NO toe pain. So I’m glad I had the procedure done, even though it was totally gross. I actually could have run the last two days, but I had so much going on in my life that there was no time to run. I’m just glad I got three runs in this week. That’s one of my running rules – three is the bare minimum times that I can run per week, and I try very hard to run four or five times.

2/3/07, Sat: NO RUN.

2/2/07, Fri: NO RUN. My toe was a little sore still today, but it really doesn’t hurt much at all. Most of my pain is imaginary – I’m just so grossed out by the sight of it and the knowledge that nail bed is exposed. In addition, I’ve been protecting and favoring this toe for over six months. Old habits die hard.

2/1/07, Thur: NO RUN. Today, I had my toe operated on to remove the ingrown toenail. It was just as bad as I thought it would be. The numbing shot was horrific, nearly making me pass out. I really wanted to watch the procedure, sort of like a final goodbye to the infection that had become routine to my life. But I started becoming hot and woozy at the numbing shots; everyone in the room emphatically urged me to not watch the actual procedure. I tried to look, but something internal compelled me to keep my eyes closed. Oh well. The doctor bandaged my toe so that it looked like a goofy giant light bulb. I am tentatively planning on Saturday to run again.

1/31/07, Wed: 4 miles, 38 minutes. I didn’t have a chance to run during the day today, so after putting the kids to bed, I drove down to the Y to run around the indoor track. Tomorrow I have my ingrown toenail procedure, so I wanted to make sure that I got a run in today because I don’t know how long I am going to be out of commission. Each mile consists of 12 laps around that dinky little track. Talk about monotonous; but at least it wasn’t as boring as running on a treadmill. In addition to the monotony, I kept tripping over the cant on the corners of the track. John would call it a floor ninja, but whatever is was, I kept tripping over it. We have determined that clumsiness runs in the family; dad’s excuse his size 14 feet. My feet aren’t boats; I don’t have a good excuse. I also found it very difficult to keep track of the laps. Forty-eight laps is a lot of counting for someone who has an approximately ten second short-term memory.

1/30/07, Tue: NO RUN. I actually could have run today, but today, studying for tomorrow’s math test absolutely had to come first. I had one window of opportunity to do something for myself, and studying had to be done. I have realized that running sometimes has become an excuse to not do homework.

1/29/07, Mon: 5.5 miles, 60 minutes. With great trepidation and nausea, I called a podiatrist to schedule an appointment to get my ingrown toenail fixed. It just keeps lingering; I mean, I’ve had the thing for over six months. Sounds deranged, but I’ve almost grown fond of it. Anyway, the toe was particularly puffy and painful today, even after recent concentrated efforts at soaking and cleaning it, so I am going to throw in the towel. Sigh. In other news, today was the longest run I have completed so far this year, and I am happy to have run the entire distance comfortably.