Injury blahs and recovery plans?????

I am sitting here bummed that I am not doing the Superior 50 next weekend, instead I am trying to figure out what I injured in my foot, along with when did I actually hurt it.

I think I am like most runners in that I hate taking time off. I tend to not be very patient and usually come back too quick and then re-injury something else or slow down the healing process. But if I don't get out running, I know I will get cranky, irritable and then frustrated. I have goals to meet and not running doesn't work. If I can walk then I think I should be able to run. This time, I have run only 2 or 3 days in the last two weeks and the odd thing is it doesn't seem that much better but it isn't intensely painful.

The injury is in my left arch area, a bit behind the first metatarsal, it is sensitive when I walk and gets to hurting when I run and occasionally aches when I am sitting. I can get pain when I push in that area, the only problem is when I push on my other foot it hurts in that area too, just not quite as bad. Makes no sense to me, so I am assuming that I strained it on one of the western marathons or I guess I could have done it when I rolled the ankle hiking in Glacier National. Since I don't know for sure, the only prudent thing to do is to ignore it and run on it this weekend, if it's of any consequence I will find out over time. So with that decision behind me and Superior out, what race should I do next?

While I was in church the other evening I mapped out how I could ramp my training up for Glacial Trail 50 (probably not the best place to be planning races). I thought to myself, I should do it it's a perfect ramp, run 3o miles this weekend on either Saturday or Sunday, then 35 a couple weeks later, followed by a 40 miler 2-3 weeks out. Then I stood up and the foot reminded me maybe another week off would be a wiser choice. So Glacial is out, for sure.

Today, I decided that maybe what I should do is just focus on some races in October, I am leaning towards doing Farmdale down in Peoria, it is a 33 mile trail race and there aren't that many other marathon or beyond races in Illinois that I have seen that excite me much. Chicago Marathon - never, me and 30,000+ runners, no, never, Quad Cities - looks ok, but it's always around my daughters birthday and she doesn't think that me running a marathon and her watching is a great way to spend her birthday. There is a new road marathon in Rockford that was held in mid-May that might work except that's the weekend my daughter always has a soccer tournament . I have looked at some of the Illinois trail runs and Farmdale looks as good as McNaughton or Clinton Lake, might not be but it looks ok.

This is the fun part of going for 50 states, you get to look at every state and try to figure out the logistics and I love to do the what if'ing and then the planning. When we were out west Karyn and I talked about all of the other states that I have left and how it will be logistically difficult (meaning expensive) unless I do the alternate weekend thing like I did out west or do back to back runs in a weekend.

You know when I think about what if I did Farmdale on Saturday and then did Grand Rapids on Sunday? I have never tried two races on consecutive days, an interesting thought. Farmdale is on trails, Grand Rapids on pavement, two totally different races both have appeal and if I did it then I would have 10 states completed and I could join the 50 states clubs. Mmm, I may need to give this one a bit more thought.

Ok, what to do then this weekend? I have taken a enough days off so I think I will try and run 10-15 miles tomorrow, if the foot feels no worse then maybe do another 10-15 on Sunday. If I can get those in then the plan for the rest of the week will be to get back into a normal training routine. Then maybe my plan will work...........