The Pain Dulls

After a long night that involved a bit of drinking, I decided to go out a little later than "usual," particularly after how nice it was to run later like the day before. I did help myself by wearing the right shoes that has the best foot support other than y running shoes out, so I think that helped me tremendously even when I woke up under the covers fully dressed, jacket and all.

Today was a bit warmer and definitely sunnier, and there were far fewer people there than I ever seen (I went around quarter to 2). Although my foot was still smarting a bit, it was subtle, dull pain. When I got to walking the first lap, I came to realize the reason it's hurting so much was because I've been running on it wrong. My natural stride is to run with my feet straight, rather having them turned out a bit or running with the outside of my feet. I almost have flat feet, and my shoes have a moderately aggressive arch to it - it is better support, but these are my shoes that I got after getting my arches used to the support with a less aggressive pair, I think it's been too much for it. Because of it, I think I've been running by putting most of my weight on the outside of my foot, causing it to hurt, because my shoes are designed to cushion and support my feet according to my stride, and now my foot isn't happy the way I was running.

Good thing I caught that early on, and during my first lap today, as I immediately corrected that and made sure I was running properly. I think I was focused on my upper body running form, I didn't realize I had to pay attention to my feet as well. So I went about running the right way, and it's made a world of difference.

LAP 1: 19.30.44
LAP 2: 16.53.48
LAP 3: 17.08.12
TOTAL: 53.52.04

Looks like it's made a difference with my time, too. I thought I had gone a little slow on my walk lap, even though it has improved, but I'm pretty impressed that my interval laps are showing some progress. The aches in my muscles are less noticeable, and even though I do get winded and it becomes difficult for me to breathe, I seem to be recovering a little faster, or at least fast enough for me to actually notice it. My after running high is greater too, and even though I've been resting a lot recently (That may be partly due to the less sleep I've been getting), I'm feeling strong and good. The foot still hurts, though, but not as much, and I took another bath in epsom salt today, which felt nice on my achy muscles.