Back in the Saddle?

Let's hope so! After two weeks, TWO WEEKS, of no running, I hit the road yesterday afternoon for a hastily planned jaunt out the Lester Trail. The last couple days I've been pondering where to run Saturday and Sunday mornings, so yesterday, when Jr. P said he didn't want to be picked up early from the day care, I decided to go out for an easy middle distance run.

The Lester Rail Trail is a converted railroad line approximately 1.5 miles from my house. At three miles in length, plus getting there and coming back, I have a nice 9 mile out and back route. With the January thaw happening, I thought it would be in decent enough shape to run on. So, lacing up my trail shoes, out the door I went.

And I was right. The trail was indeed runnable, albeit at a very slow pace. The snow was soft, wet, and slushy, and thanks to someone who drove a snowmobile through there at some point, not very deep. The going was slow, I averaged only 10:30 per mile for the six miles of the trail, but enjoyable. With the exception of a cardinal, some other birds, and some small flying insect that must have just woken back up, there wasn't a living thing to be seen out there. Just the motoring public in their Friday afternoon hurry at the three road crossings.

I've been reading Born to Run recently and tried to concentrate on my form while out there. It was kind of hard considering the lack of solid footing, but I think I managed OK. My problem is that right where you land on the foot while barefoot running is exactly where my foot pain is. Not new foot pain, but the same stuff I had while training for the 24 Hour. Maybe my feet are so week I'm going to need to work through the pain to get stronger. Or this ball-of-the-foot form just isn't for me and I should concentrate on landing the way I always have.