I Broke My Phone for This

(No, not "jailbreak", as in dropped and broke whilst standing in the street to take the picture.)

The greatest small business on earth, presented without additional comment.

Sorry all for having done such a shockingly awful job of forced march. I hope this makes up for it in some small, profound, life-altering way.

Ugh.

sick. sick. blech.

Feeling Meh

Watching the Knicks go down weirdly and/or hard against the Spurs. Sitting here with the popcorn in my forefoot every time I step down (it's a TUMOR!) It's a great fucking day.

More thoughts to follow, we'll see whether I can catch fire tomorrow on my forced march. Sleep well everyone. I hope I will... wife sick, daughter teething. All is AWESOME.

Great News!

So, went to the MD today (actually podiatrist, not sure... are those real doctors, or do MDs laugh about podiatry when they golf?)

I found out that that pain in the left foot, it totally IS nerve pain! It's never going to go away! Isn't that fucking lovely. It may go away, that is, or maybe not, or maybe cortisone, or maybe surgery, or whatever. So this might mean I can't hike anymore without huge pain, or any of the other many things I enjoy doing on my feet.

Official diagnosis (for now): "Morton's Neuroma"

Fucking fuck.

Mission 50/50

I'm heading to the Doctor tomorrow, to have my foot looked at. The nagging issue has gotten a bit worse, and hiking at Harriman on Sunday was dreadful, in a pair of boots that used to be all-day comfortable, blister-free, and perfect from the moment I got them. If I can't hike this summer, I'll be pretty disappointed, after this long, fattening winter I was counting on it.

If, on the other hand, I get the inevitable recommendation for an orthotic, I'm going to quietly recall the truism that "someone whose only tool is a hammer tends to see all problems in terms of nails", resist shouting angrily about it, and just go on my way.

Another realization: someone will always be doing a longer event, and doing it faster than I am. I need to stop feeling peevish about people social-"media-ing" about half-marathons and so forth, otherwise I'll never feel a sense of satisfaction about this, or turn into a loopy creature who aims to do ultra-events on my broken feet.

In other news, went to Harriman to find at least the 5k loop for the race, couldn't track it down, ended up just sort of noodling about in the woods with the better half and the delightful progeny. Some accidents are happier than you expect, recalling a ramble through Doodletown's ruins and cemeteries yesterday.

Sybillance, Sybillance... Check Check

I think I missed the second day of Forced March, but I'm still here. I'm still on pace with the run prep, and may take a check walk of the trails for the course tomorrow. Real pain in the feet, hoping they heal sometime.

Lace Them Up

Today begins the "forced march" of hopefully daily postings.

I'll warn that some will be lousy. Probably lousier than usual.

I'm still running, I had a moment where I realized that my gmapping had been wrong, and I had gone longer than expected (by a tiny, tiny bit.) So, I've skipped forward a week in my shorter in-week runs, and will tonight have to follow through on another monumental WHOLE MILE-AND-A-HALF without walking.

I think it should be fine, though I'm sore in the hip flexor from pushing a bit too hard on the same distance the other day. Conventional wisdom is to increase weekly mileage by ten-percent as a cap. This is proceeding a bit quicker, which has some possible risks of soreness and injury etc. Nerve pain in left foot is still present, right foot is a bit grumpy as well, but "we'll see."

What was encouraging is that my 1.5 the other night covered the road I had done my first nauseous .75 on a few weeks ago, and it was easier this time. I was a bit quicker, I worked a bit harder, and double the distance didn't feel too awful. It made me feel a bit hopeful, and it makes this feel like not as dreadful an idea as it seemed at first.