Monday, October 26, 2009

Losing A Toe Nail

I think my arrogant bragging about never losing a toe nail has finally caught up to me. I knew I might be in for trouble about three hours after the marathon.

I'll spare you a picture since, generally speaking, toes are pretty gross to look at. But use your imagination and envision this: Long Toe. Left Foot. Getting Black. Darker By The Day. I don't know what to expect but I'm thinking one of these days it's going to just pop off.

In other running news:

Monday, October 19th 2009: 3 miles in 28 minutes. My legs still feel rusty.

Tuesday, October 20th 2009: 30 glorious minutes on the exercise bike.

Wednesday, October 21st 2009: Snicker's Bar.

Thursday, October 22nd 2009: 4 miles in 34 minutes. This was a golden run. Very, VERY rarely I have an effortless, painless run. It felt amazing. My legs felt like feathers. I averaged an 8:47 per minute pace which is fast for me.

These rare outings are the reason running becomes an addiction. It's like gambling. You lose money on 29 pulls of the slot machine. Then on the 30th pull, you win some money. You are happy. So you keep dumping your paycheck into the machine hoping for another jackpot. One time when the gamble pays off and you're hooked. Elusive runs like this keep me going.

Friday, October 23rd 2009: Nothing.

Saturday, October 24th 2009: 10 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes. The first two miles were great. During the last eight miles, I felt like I'd just been hit by a station wagon (and wished I would just get hit by a station wagon). I was completely exhausted. My body was out of gas. My legs were lead. While I was running, I tried to figure out why I was so miserable. Was it...
  • The 44 ounce Diet Mountain Dew I drank yesterday?
  • Not getting enough sleep the night before?
  • Not having enough fuel in me (I had a bowl of cereal in the morning then nothing else until I ran 7 hours later)?
  • Running in the afternoon when it was warmer outside?
  • Too soon after the marathon?

I definitely think all of those things played a part in the train wreck. But I think there's another, more simple reason the run was so hard: 10 miles is just a really far distance to run no matter how you look at it.

I was discouraged considering that I had run 26 miles four weeks earlier. 10 miles should be nothing. But 10 miles was something. Hard.

3 comments:

  1. Ouch! Sam winced in pain and immediately sat down to inspect the damage. Sure enough, the toenail on the big toe looked a little worse for wear. It seemed like the rock

    ReplyDelete
  2. Losing a toenail, whether due to injury, trauma, or a fungal infection, can be a painful and unsettling experience. The toenail acts as a protective layer for the underlying tissue, and its absence can leave the toe vulnerable and exposed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cortisol, often referred to as the stress hormone, plays a significant role in your body’s response to injury. When you lose a toenail, your body releases cortisol to help manage the stress and promote healing. However, elevated cortisol levels can sometimes hinder the recovery process by affecting immune function and increasing inflammation.

    ReplyDelete