One of those days...

Everyone has them. Tough training days. Man, today was one of them. The alarm went off, I didn't want to get up. I didn't want to get dressed. I didn't want to go run. I had great excuses...my foot's hurting, my stomach is off, I didn't drink enough water last night, I'm tired...I flat out just didn't want to run. That doesn't happen very often to me. But I went. Got there, stretched out, headed out.

In my defense, my foot really was bothering me a little bit. I thought I'd had it laced to tightly earlier in the week because it had been feeling almost bruised on the top of my foot for the last few runs. I loosened the laces, but I could still feel it. It wasn't a pain that was bad enough to stop me, but it was enough to mess with my head. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't stop the negative thoughts, either. Every stride was, "I want to go home, I want to quit, I want to walk, I don't want to do this today." Running is such a mental sport and that much negativity was dragging me down. Way down. I tried to think happy thoughts, cheerful thoughts, thoughts about the gorgeous weather and the snow on the mountain tops, but the foot pain was relentless if not excruciating. It didn't hurt THAT badly, but it was enough to throw off my entire mental game.

At mile 6 I had to stop and sit for a minute. My pace leader checked out my foot. It wasn't swollen and didn't appear bruised, but she was willing to call for someone to come get me. Are you kidding?? I will NOT have someone come pick me up in the middle of a run!!! I was indignant. So I got up and kept going. I finished the run, all 8.5 miles of it. And that's all that matters. I had a rotten day, I was in a bad mental place, but I sucked it up, buttercup. I pushed through it and did it anyway. And even though I hated every minute of it today, I LOVE that I did it.

As a footnote (ha, that's a pun!!), there is a guy in the IE Club that does medical massage therapy/physical therapy. I had him take a look at my foot. He didn't see anything overtly wrong, but to be safe I'll go see the doctor on Monday if I can get in. If it IS a pinched nerve, my insurance should cover a few sessions of medical massage therapy. Stay tuned...