Alive but not kicking

I am experiencing my first major running injury. It's been two days and I'm already going nuts. During the last couple miles of my run on Saturday morning I started to feel an intense pain in my left big toe. I barely made it home but had a kayaking adventure to get packed up for so I didn't give it another thought once I got through the front door. By Saturday evening I could barely move my big toe and my foot was killing me. The pain continued through Sunday and when I woke up Monday after taking it easy and doing nothing all day Sunday I knew something was seriously wrong so I headed to the doctor and sure enough - stress fracture! 4-6 weeks of no running! I have a string of events coming up and now I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out of all of them which is a total bummer because I was really getting my speed back and feeling much stronger on my long runs. I'll begin cross training when I the pain isn't so bad. Right now, I can't even walk without being in pain and it's absolutely awful! Like I said, it's only day 3 and I'm frustrated, super depressed, stressing out that I can't run and totally bummed!

From now on, I'm training smarter. I'm a glutton for hill repeats and I'm sure the pressure of running on my toes up my favorite hill and back down on the balls of my feet contributed to this stress fracture. I'll cut down my hill repeats and replace one day of hills with a track session (yuck!). I'm also going to stock up on the calcium and try to find a pool to strengthen my feet and ankles (and I love love love swimming but have the most difficult time finding a good lap pool). I am going to try and be patient but I can now sympathize with everyone who's had to cancel race plans due to an injury.

The first race I'll have to drop out of is the upcoming Napa-to-Sonoma Half Marathon (www.napa2sonoma.com) this Sunday. At least I'll be able to participate as a volunteer but I'm not sure how I'm going to handle watching all the healthy runners participate!

Saturday was only the second run in my new blue Launches (http://www.brooksrunning.com/product/1200601B/123200/Launch). To make this awful 4 weeks of no running more depressing I have to look at a nice new pair of shoes waiting to be broken in!