Tell-Tale Toenail

   My grandpa had the worst feet I’ve ever seen. I just couldn’t believe that those things were part of a real person, a person I happened to care about. Seriously, they were bad, they could have belonged to a character in Labyrinth (if you don’t know that reference, I feel sorry for you).  He had toenails like yellow icebergs and cracks in his heels you could hide pennies in. I felt sorry for my grandma, could you imagine those things rubbing up against your legs in the middle of the night?

   The reason I’m bringing up my grandpa’s feet is that I just spent some time grooming mine. My feet don’t quite repulse me like my grandpa’s did, but they are definitely jacked up. The toenails on both my second toes are thick and discolored (which is an improvement over being black), and the rest of my toes are callused and covered with the skin left over from old blisters. The thing is, my grandpa’s feet were like that naturally, I’m sure his lifestyle played a part, but he certainly didn’t mean for them to look that way, mine, however, have been made this way on purpose.

   The first time I noticed the damage I was doing to my toes was while I was training for my first marathon. Close to the end of a long run I had this sudden pain, I thought I had ripped one of my toenails out, I almost screamed like a little girl. I stopped on the side of the road and took my shoe off to see just what I had done to myself. It was not as bad as I thought, I guessed that I had just torn an old blister and there was a little blood. The next day, however, I noticed my nail had turned black. As a runner I was quite green at this point and I didn’t know exactly what was going on, so I did a little research.

  There were a couple reasons this could be happening. I quickly ruled out downhill running, where your toes can be forced to the front of your shoes, simply because I live in Florida and the terrain is mostly flat. The culprit had to be the fit of my shoes, too much or too little room in the toe box. Your toes tend to rub the inside of your shoe, too much of this and the vibration will eventually kill your toenail. So I went to my local running store and had all kinds of fancy measurements done, I ended up buying the most expensive shoes I had ever owned, which isn’t saying much because I’m known to be pretty cheap.

  Armed with my new shoes that fit like a glove I continued my training. Bet you can guess what happened next. I blackened a toenail on my other foot. I was at a loss; I just didn’t know what to do about it. I had done everything all the running books and magazines had said to do. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I would just have to except it and keep running.

   Now that I’m a little more experienced as a runner and I have met more and more runners, I’ve found out that jacked up toes are a source of pride in certain circles. It means that you’re really putting in the miles. I’m not saying it’s a good thing, you should be taking care of your feet, but it’s definitely not something to be ashamed of. Every time I see a guy, or lady, with a teardrop tattoo I want to pull off my shoe and say, Oh yeah, look at these bad boys, but usually I don’t because those guys scare me.

   I’ll conclude this with a few words of advice: Make sure your shoes fit, keep your toenails trimmed, lube your toes up a little on long runs, and for the sake of your loved ones wear socks to bed.

Taking it Easy is Hard

   

   I glance down at my GPS, I’m hitting 6:10 per mile pace. This is not what the plan was, this is supposed to be an easy run at 7:15 pace.  Every time I look down at my GPS I’m going about a minute faster than I want. I have to constantly check my pace, it feels so awkward to be running this slow. More importantly, what if someone sees me running this slow. Of course this is just my ego, in reality nobody cares how fast or slow someone else is running.

   After about three years of running I felt like I was no longer making any improvements. I had reached a plateau. What was worse, it felt like it was getting more and more difficult to run at my current level. I could feel it in my legs when I headed out for a run. I was tired.

   All my runs were being done at about marathon pace, with the exception of speed days, which were even faster.  My training didn’t include any easy days and eventually it caught up with me. I started feeling the results of all this training right in the middle of my build up for an upcoming marathon. I had run my last marathon in 2:49 and I had developed an aggressive plan to run 2:39 in my next effort at the distance.

   The day of the marathon came and I felt tired before the gun went off. It took all I had to hit the 6:03 per mile pace I had planned for the race. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hang on, my body refused to continue at that pace around mile seventeen. I had never stopped running in a race before, but I had no choice. After a few minutes I started running again, but every time I would get close to my planned pace I would have to stop again. Finally, I acquiesced and finished the rest of the race at an eight minute pace, finishing in 2:59.

   In the weeks after the marathon I felt increasingly tired. I knew there was something wrong so I started looking into what might be the cause, though in my mind I already had an idea of my problem. After researching online, going through all my old running magazines, and rereading my running books my suspicions were confirmed; I was over doing it, not taking proper recovery days and not doing true easy runs.

For the past few months now I have been doing a couple easy runs a week. Sundays I do about an hour and a half at 7:30 pace, which feels dreadfully slow, Mondays I do an hour at that pace again. Fridays are for recovery; usually I’ll do five miles at 8:00 pace. The rest of the week is filled with speed, tempo, and progression runs. It’s not easy for me to run an easy pace, I have to constantly check myself and make corrections, but it’s starting to pay off. I’m feeling more like my old self again and I’m looking forward to seeing some PRs this summer. I’ll let you know how it goes.