blisters | heart & sole

Sometimes training involves being flexible, and this week I had to do just that and retool my workout plan to include more spinning and less time pounding on my feet after a not-so-smart Tuesday tempo run left my feet covered in blisters. I still felt like I got a really good week in though and am continuing to improve my fitness. The feet are doing a lot better and I hope to test them with some more faster runs this week. I ran 14.17 total miles last week. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class in the morning followed by a legs workout.

Tuesday: You can read the full story here, but basically I decided to do a tempo run in really old shoes and my feet paid dearly for it leaving me a bit hobbled for the rest of the week. Somehow it was still a great run. I got in 6.67 miles on the office treadmill starting out with a mile warm-up at an 8-minute pace, bumping it down to 7:35 to start the tempo portion and working my way down to 7:03 before cooling down for 2 minutes back at the 8-minute pace.

Wednesday: I bandaged my badly blistered feet up and limped over to my apartment gym in the morning, and put in 30 minutes on the stepper and a legs workout.

Thursday: I got in a body ride spin class at Revolve Thursday night as part of a blogger ride they hosted. It was a blast – more to come on that tomorrow.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: I started the day off with an endurance ride spin class in the morning and then tested my feet out for an easy 3 miler in the afternoon at my apartment gym.

Sunday: I headed back to the spin studio for an early morning body ride before putting in an easy 4.5 miles on the treadmill at Washington Sports Clubs before my membership there ends this week.

Warning: Picture at the bottom is not safe for viewing while eating lunch!

Have you ever done something running related that you knew was a bad idea, but you went ahead and did it anyways? I know I sure have.

Tried to sweat out sickness with a tough run? Been there.

Think doing a long run or a race hungover won’t be that bad? Don’t remind me!

Done something for the first time in a race even though you’ve done enough races to know that’s breaking a cardinal rule? Check.

Run through pain thinking how much damage could I really be doing? More times than I’d like to admit. I could keep going, but I’m sure you get the drift.

Yesterday I made one of these running missteps. I ran in old shoes… really old shoes. I just couldn’t get myself out of bed for my track workout in the morning, but I had a personal training session at a client’s later last night not too far from the track so I figured I’d fit it in before then.

It was a busy morning at work and I ended up working through lunch, but hit a breaking point later in the afternoon. It was a gross, rainy day so I decided I could hit the office gym and switch my tempo run and track days. Naturally I didn’t have my gear with me, but I did have a back up set of gym clothes and an old pair of running sneaks that have seen one too many 20 milers to be used on anything but the elliptical anymore. I forgot a headband and I was wearing my glasses instead of my contacts. Clearly I should’ve paid attention to all of these signs and bagged the run.

Instead I did a just more than 6.5 mile tempo run at an average 7:30 pace. I could feel the blisters forming and I almost never get blisters. I should have stopped. I kept telling myself I was just being a baby and looking for an excuse to get out of my tempo run. Somehow I made it the whole way, but boy did it make for an uncomfortable walk home. I had multiple blisters on both feet and the biggest blood blister I’ve ever seen on my big toe. Ouch!

Fortunately blisters will heal and my feet should be fine in a day or two, but what a stupid mistake! Just in case you’re wondering, I’m getting rid of the shoes today and have already removed them from my office so I won’t be tempted to do that again!

Have you ever done something against your better judgement on a run? How’d it turn out for you?

Second Warning: Super gross picture below!