injured!

i'm exiting '07 with an injured foot! weird, considering i made it through my heavier marathon training schedule fairly healthy.

the top of my left foot hurts. i've been limping around for a couple days. i thought i was starting to feel a little better last night, so what did i do? i laced 'em up. i felt ok (aka only slightly uncomfortable) until around 50 minutes then i could feel the dull pain begin to seep through. then, on the last mile i started to feel more sharp, shooting pains.

brent's life-long rules of pain management (don't follow these at home):
dull pain: keep pushing through, but maintain caution.
sharp pain: stop running until feel better.

i can't pinpoint the exact cause. 1) on dec. 23 i ran for 90 minutes on the treadmill with new shoes; the laces were tight, 2) on dec 26 i ran for 100 minutes with the spikes (dull pain heading into this run), 3) limping began dec 27, 4) dec 29: ~90 minute run with dull pain, 5) dec 30: 66 minutes ending in sharp pains.

who knows! i'll take today off, then cross train for as many days as i can maintain my sanity.

here is a quick recap of my year of running by the numbers vs. '06. sweet!

















when i think back to my running adventures in '07, this picture encapsulates it.




















i hope everyone has a great new year and an awesome '08. i can't wait!