FINAL AT 30

Four weeks later. Assured by doctor this was normal, the
new bone is so light it barely shows up. Healing correctly!

Well tonight I ran for the final time as a thirty year old. Thirty was definitely was worst year running since I started, but it was mostly due to things out of my control. Namely, my psoriatic arthritis diagnosis that took far too long to get. Once I was being treated, it was another couple of months before the treatment really kicked in.

Looking toward 31, I think it will be a much better year. Since giving the methotrexate injections a couple of months to build my arthritis is feeling much better. Almost to the point of being gone. It hasn't been an issue once in the last two months. I can go on four mile runs now and my knees don't feel a thing. Before, during, or after. Earlier on the blog I was giving my knee pain a score out of 10, at worst now it is 1/10. And frankly it almost feels 0/10. So that's super encouraging! That is what I was hoping for! The next step will be to see if it is sustainable. And can I ramp up to a modest amount of activity while keeping those same results?

So that will be the question moving forward. I actually have a half marathon in two and a half weeks. Yikes! It is the Boring Half Marathon. I agreed to do it with a friend a few months back and didn't imagine taking a month off to deal with my broken toes. So I am not quite where I want to be fitness wise. The goal will to be something like Miami earlier this year... run most of the first five or six miles and then try to jog/walk it in. Somewhere around 2:45 time wise. Assuming all goes well with that, my next major race would be Miami in January 2018. Assuming I'm feeling good, maybe I could try to run that entire one slowly. We'll see.

But yes, tonight I did run. It was my fourth run back from my broken toes. Fourth run in eight days. And my body is feeling pretty good! I'm surprised my cardio held up as well as it did... the first run back was definitely a challenge, but I feel much better a few runs in. Was able to run an 11:00 pace for four miles tonight without stopping and it wasn't even much of a challenge. Not a walk in the park but not super easy either. I'm just slowly trying to build up mileage. My runs back have been 3, 3, 4, and 4 miles. Hoping to one six mile run under my belt at least before the half. However, I'm going to be cautious and ramp up slowly.

My toes feel great! Nary a compliant during or after the run. Seems to not really affect them. One toe is still swollen but I think it's slowly going down. So really they are a non-issue, which is great. The IT band thing that was challenging me early in the year is still there. It hasn't really struck yet, but I can feel it lurking. I think it may have to do with my pace. It is so much slower than usual and I remember trying to run this pace when I was in shape would really hurt my knees. So I almost wonder if it is related. If it fades as I get faster, that would be awesome. Best case! If not, maybe I invest in one of those IT band straps. Who knows.

That ended up being quite the ramble. My birthday is tomorrow and I turn 31. I remember an unspoken (I believe) goal of doing a 50k (31 miles) when I was 31. That ain't happening, lol. Maybe I'll do a 5k and just enjoy it 10x as much?