After the scare with my foot from a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take the following week off, giving it time to heal. Tuesday’s run was the time I was on the road again after those nine days off and I felt it. It was like having to learn to run once again and my breathing and form was all over the place.

Thursday was much better, I felt comfortable once again and things felt good all around. My time for the six miles also showed things were back closer to normal, I was able to keep a pace similar to those runs before my break. I was ready for the Saturday long run of fourteen miles.

This week was a break in the training with only fourteen miles being on the schedule and our last run before the 20 miler we have next week. We had a nice group of about 10 people staying together for most of the outbound leg, everyone was chatty and in pretty good spirits. The social aspect of our group makes it so much easier to go the distance, specially when your body is not at its peak. After the turn around, the group broke apart a little bit with some people speeding up at different spots. Glenn and I were pushing each other through our body pains and kept a pretty good pace for the length of the return trip.

We ran a time of 1:48:51 for the fourteen miles which is a 7:46 pace. My foot felt a little sore during the run, specially the last few miles but it was nothing like the run when I first felt the pain. I am also going to replace my shoes in preparation for the long twenty mile run to provide my feet a little more cushioning. I think next week’s run not only will it be a physical challenge but it will also be a mental one, something I am starting to think more about as race day approaches and we only have a limited amount of runs left.