Lessons Re-learned: Haste Makes Waste and Listen to Your Body

I have two running experiences to share with you today. Both lessons are mind-numbingly easy to understand. I am sharing my tale hoping no one follows in my footsteps. Apparently, I don’t know how to put shoes on, and I don’t listen to my body.

I have a routine when I put on my running shoes. I sit down, widen the top of the shoe, carefully insert my foot, draw in the slack from the runner’s knot loops, tie my shoelaces with a double knot, and check to ensure they aren’t too tight or loose. On Tuesday, for some unknown reason, I hastily jammed my feet in my shoes, went outside, put one foot on top of the front tire of my car, and tied my shoe. I did the same with the other shoe and went on my way. The run was a four-mile recovery run. The shoes and my feet felt fine during the run. However, I felt pain on the top of my left foot near my big toe when I completed my post-run core exercises.

The next day I followed my typical shoe routine, my foot felt a little sore to walk on, so I tested it with about a half-mile warmup run. Running felt better than walking; therefore, I embarked on my run. Wednesday’s training objective was to pace my 10-mile marathon pace run better than my most recent pace run. My pacing was much more sustainable, and my average heart rate was ten beats lower. However, I started to feel some foot pain in the final mile. I should have stopped. After the run, I saw a red spot on my foot that was tender to the touch. My left foot near my first metatarsal and toe appeared to be bruised.

That afternoon, we took the children to an indoor rock climbing gym. I wanted to climb, but I stood and watched. The floor was spongy to keep everyone safe. Navigating the floor didn’t help my foot. I took Thursday off and used some ice to heal. Thursday night, I felt the knot in my foot near the bruise and thought I was on the path to recovery. However, Friday came around, and my foot was worse. I started taking Aleve, which did not help much. Despite icing my foot, the pain increased as the evening rolled on. I could not put my foot flat on the floor. At 9:40 p.m., I tried to go to bed early but could not get comfortable. I switched to ibuprofen at 3 a.m., which did the trick. My foot started to hurt less, and I finally fell asleep at 4 a.m. Keeping with the ice, ibuprofen, and elevation, my foot got better throughout the day.

I shouldn't have jammed on my shoes for Tuesday's recovery run. I should have listened to my body better and stopped after 9 miles on Wednesday. The double whammy cost me the rest of the week (four days of running 42 miles). The experience has taught me to appreciate that I have had 87 good days of training. It also taught me not to take shortcuts. My training to this point means I have plenty of fuel stored up in the tank. I should be okay for the marathon in May. If this had to happen to me, I am glad it happened now and not the week before the race.

Still, it was a difficult lesson to learn. Seeing all the reels, stories, and videos of runners preparing for the Boston Marathon while I was sitting around with my leg elevated and wishing I was running 20 miles was upsetting. What a lesson! Have you had to run a similar tough-love experience from running? Please share what you have learned in the comments below.