Yesterday's Raspberry

Yesterday's workout got a raspberry, but I was glad I did it once it was over! (I was also glad it was over!) My assignment was a 60-minute ride on the stationary bike at the gym. I was dragging yesterday, so I didn't get to the gym until early afternoon. (My normal workout schedule is early morning, pre-work.) Saturday's running grumpiness was creeping back into my workout, and then I had to ride on the "icky" stationary bike, since someone else was using "mine." It was interesting, though...once I hit the 15:00 mark, the ride got much easier mentally. I knew I could finish it once I got a quarter of the way there. Funny how that works, those little benchmarks in our heads. When I'm running, the current mile seems more doable once I've covered four tenths of that mile--"downhill from there."

Anyway, I ended up riding 10.2 miles in 60 minutes.

After I got home from the workout, I decided to call a nearby Foot Solutions store to find out their hours. As it happens, they were open yesterday because of North Carolina's tax-free back-to-school shopping weekend. I called at 4:20 PM, and was at the store 20 minutes later! They were closing at 5:00, but the lady stayed open longer to evaluate my feet. The consulation was very interesting, and included some computerized measurements of my gait. I explained the issues with my right toes and the pain after 2-3 miles, and she agreed that custom made orthotics may well be the way to go ($400 a pop there, expensive whether I get them at Foot Solutions or through the podiatrist!!). So, we're going to try a special toe pad first, which I should be able to pick up later this week (hopefully before Saturday's long run!). It felt good to make some progress on having my right toe bridge feel better during my runs.

This morning, I was back on track, at least in terms of an early morning workout. I felt pretty tired, and was eyeing the shorter end of my 30-40 minutes elliptical assignment. when I first started. By the time I hit 30 minutes, though, I was good for another 10.  2.82 miles in 40:03 minutes, before it was all over.



Image above from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?picture=raspberry-background&image=3424