Jim's Blog

Miles and miles and miles pass by. The content of this blog has become fairly sparse. I haven’t found the urge to write as regularly. Days are filled with running, working, family and sleeping. I don’t know how elite runners can put in 100 mile weeks on a regular basis. I suppose that is what makes them elite.

The issue with my toe seems to be resolving itself. I ended up taking a full week off from running to allow it some healing time. It hurt quite a bit the first few runs back. It is still sore on occasion now but overall it is much better.

My training is still in forward motion. My goal at this time is simply to keep building the weekly mileage. I feel like it is going well. These last two weeks I have been in the 50 mile range and have not suffered any lingering pain or injury. I feel myself getting much stronger. I’m learning just how much further you can actually go even when your body is screaming for a break. With the higher mileage I am getting lots of practice on tired legs which will prove valuable in later stages of the big run.

For the last 2 weeks I have been adding in some runs with my old New Balance 790’s with the insoles removed. They are very minimal and almost completely flat but unfortunately they still have some heel rise that I don’t like. The best thing about them is they don’t offer any arch support or stabilization and they are pretty light. I started using them for a couple reasons. One, I blew the big toe out of one of my VFF’s and now have it duc-taped together. Two, when I hit over 40 miles in the week I begin to experience a lot of sensitivity in my feet post run. Mainly, I feel this is a conditioning problem that could be worked through but I am afraid to push the issue this close to October and suffer a potential injury and set back. For the big run, I may end up using both VFF’s and some thin shoes. I’m a little worried to run the extremely rocky profile of Busiek without a little more substantial sole. Suffering a stone bruise on my heel in the middle of the night would make for a very long finish.

I have found myself missing my bike lately! After spending an entire year of riding daily it seems strange to only ride 1 or 2 days per week. I have a feeling once I am done with my birthday run I will get back to more regular riding.

Week of 7-19, 32 on bike, 47 on foot.