Training: couldn't wait for the toe to fix itself 😩

Impatience got the better of me in the end. With the toe still hurting when I walk around in stocking feet — 3 or 4 weeks after injuring it — I just came to the conclusion that I might just have to get back to running with an injury. It's effectively what I did through most of the Couch to 5K in the first place; it's just of not had to since getting the Brooks trainers. 😐

So, with the orienteering on Sunday looming, I took to the streets of Newcastle for the first time in ages; call it a shakedown test, consisting of walk-run-walk-run-walk. Each running bit was probably about a mile. I guess I did around 3km of running overall.

Long time since I last saw myself reflected here in running gear

And... it felt okay. Actually, it felt really quite weird at first (it's been so long!) and the toe started out with a few complaints, but both the weirdness and pain soon dissipated. Of more note perhaps was how unfit I felt. I was expecting a time for the first kilometre — which included a chunk of walking — to be around 7:30, but to my amazement, Google claimed it arrived after about 5:45(!). The GPS trace showed why later; I'd forgotten I was on a course where the GPS is super-unreliable.

Speaking of which, the course was from 55° North, over the Tyne Bridge, back over the High Level Bridge, back to 55° North and then do it again. Seems GPS hates bridges, and especially ones where you're a bit more enclosed, like on the High Level.

So, the pace wasn't really of interest, but how did I feel afterwards? Okay, actually. As much as I'd huffed and puffed, I didn't really break into a sweat. And the foot felt pretty much no different after the run to before it.

The only question now is: do I return to parkrun tomorrow for a non-stop 5km, or do I attend the orienteering for a much more stop-start 7–8km? All I know right now is it would probably be madness to try both. 🤷

Update: forgot to say that the parkrun at Heslington didn't happen in the end. 🙁 Many reasons, including the injury, my tiredness, work stress and a daughter who told me I was meant to be spending the holiday with her, not running around selfishly by myself. Can't really argue with that, can you?

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