Owie Kazowie!

So, this morning I met Troy at the Trolley Trail for a 90 minute run. Neither of us have been consistently running longer distances, so we were planning to take it easy and enjoy the run. We started around 7:30am, and it was already pretty humid out, but not bad temps. The plan was to run 9 min/walk 1 min and just see how it went. The "out" portion of this path is slightly uphill and, today, it was into the wind as well. Still - not too bad as we got going. My legs/lungs/mental state all felt really good. I needed this! Anyway, we are trotting along, chatting about random topic - many of which all come back to the Ironman. So far, it's a good run!
We get around 50 minutes or so into the run and I can feel the arches of both feet burning. What? Ok, so I'm working on some blisters. Should I stop? Well, I only have a little longer...I'll keep going. We ran for another 20 minutes or so and then walked a long cool down/stretch. I was a little bummed, 'cause the legs/lungs still felt really good and I would've liked to continue. Oh well. The KC 1/2 marathon is only 2 weeks away, at least I got in this much of a run.
I examined the blisters after running and they didn't look good, but also didn't appear to be much worse than blisters of yesteryear (ya like that, yesteryear?!). I went on my merry way, running errands, took Tucker for a long walk in the park, etc. Speaking of Tucker, here are a couple of cute pics of him...he's looking a little sleepy, eh?



Yes, he's pretty cute! Okay, so as the day/night went on, the blisters hurt worse. I woke up with my feet hurting - this is strange, I thought. I was miserably uncomfortable all day Sunday, and by the time Sunday night rolled around, I was flat out in pain.
Monday morning comes...I have to teach spin class. Uh-oh, this simply is not going to work! I take the orthodics out of my tennis shoes and loosen the laces, creating lots o' space. I can tolerate this for a short time. I teach class standing there. I come home. I wait until 8:30 and call the Podiatrist. I need help. I'm in luck, they have an appointment at 10:15. I hobble to my appointment. I am treated for what appears to be the start of blisters gone bad - infection - yes, it's gross, and yes, it makes me feel gross, but - race fans - this is the reality of training and pursuit of the Ironman. So, for your viewing pleasure, I'm including a photo of just one of my blisters. I don't want to completely gross you out... I spent quite a bit of time discussing with my podiatrist the causes, prevention and solutions to my problem. We do think this is stemming in large part to my new orthodics. Perhaps the "break in" time has not been adequate. I do not know. What I do know is that I cannot continue to have this issue. I cannot continue to have one workout sideline me for a week. I need to figure this out. So, I go back early next week - when the feet are touchable - to start looking at the orthodics and shoe positioning and trying to fix the problem.
We'll see about the KC 1/2 marathon next weekend. I honestly don't recall an event where I've signed up that I haven't participated. This could be a first on the books for Dawn.