Minimalist at last

After a week of flying planes, riding trains, cars, taxis and running across Paris and London in high heels, I am really thankful for being back home with my family. The trip was rather exhausting and not only because it started with one of the longest and most difficult training runs I've ever done... but also because of the constant state of movement that followed, all while fighting jetlag madness and juggling 3 languages. Needless to say, I had planned 2 more runs and a swim during this time, but none of those happened. I came back feeling fat and bloated and no surprise there, my scale let me know that I've eaten too many desserts, cheeses and glasses of wine.

But even more aggravating, the night before flying back home I discovered that the Universe had thanked me with an ingrown nail on my left big toe, which was SO painful, I could NOT put the foot down to walk without getting tears in my eyes. The pain was at the bottom and side of the nail and of course, the toe was all red and swollen. So for two days I walked with a limp, which gave me ankle and shin pains in return. Since then it got better thanks to a constant dose of antibiotic ointment and foot baths in hot water with a ton of salt (thanks to my friend Carrie for the tip!). I think I caught it on time, but man oh man, why do I have to pay back in pain what I get for good luck? There must be balance in everything I guess.

On Friday night I had to do a 1h negative split run and I fought really hard with my mind to abstract the pain. I managed to get through it and finish the workout, but thanks to the rain that offered a nice distraction. Today, Saturday, we went downtown to the MEC store to find some running clothes for the fall and winter seasons for hubbs. We left half of our paycheck there and I, too, returned home with something new. My first pair of minimalist shoes, the New Balance Minimus WR00 with zero-zero as in zero drop. I fell in love the second I put them on. They are so light and my toes swim in a very large toebox, and I can already dream of leaving blisters and pain behind. I am planning to take them tomorrow on my 1h40 run. A bit risky 7 days from the marathon, but at this moment I am rather desperate because of a deep and extremely painful blister that has been plaguing my runs for a month. The only way to get rid of it methinks, is to find a shoe that rubs somewhere else. Between blisters and ingrown nails, I have enough pain to test my HTFU threshold on, dammit.

I doubt that I'll be able to run a full marathon in those yet, but it's a good start. Oh, and if you see purple in the picture above, it's the stupid Instagram filter that I chose, they are actually deep blue, almost black. Everything else looks accurate. Between us, I am a bit nervous to run in those as I am not going to have a big fat heel to fall back on if I get tired, but I may survive after all, it shouldn't be for nothing all the forefoot strike running that I've been doing since training for this marathon. Actual results tomorrow, over and out.