Face Plant

by Bryan on 2/8/2008 at 11:18 AM in Health and Fitness

Okay, so I am out on my run last night (Week 2, Day 4 of Hal Higdon's Intermediate 5K Training Program), and I'm about 1/3 of the way into the last mile, I've just crested a little hill and I'm picking up speed to cruise on down the hill, when all of a sudden my left foot catches on some uneven sidewalk.

Now understand, my right foot hadn't come forward very far yet, so all of a sudden I am launched into the air, and looking down at the ground. My first thought was "oh, crap—this is going to hurt!" My second thought was "how should I land?" I thought about putting my hands out to break my fall, putting my arms, but not putting my hands down, to avoid breaking my wrists, pretending like I was sliding headfirst into second base, and finally, I thought about trying to roll in midair and hope I somehow landed in the grass. Then, in a split second, somehow my right leg came forward enough, and under me enough (but just barely, as I was already getting close to the ground), that I was able to catch myself, at least for a step. Once I realized that I had landed on my right leg and not my face, my attention turned to getting my left leg down before my momentum put me on the ground anyway. Fortunately, I was able to get my left leg down, and after a couple of more big awkward steps, I was back to cruising down the hill.

I did a quick assessment of the situation, discovering that the little toe on my left foot sure did hurt. I also noticed a little "twinge" in my lower back and my right hip, but that quickly faded, and I finished my run. As I was doing a little cool down walk, I noticed the my toe was sore—like a seam in my sock was rubbing or something. When I got back to the house and got my shoe and sock off, sure enough, there was a blister on top of my little toe, right where my foot hit the hardest. This morning, the toe is still sore and my lower back, right above my butt is a bit sore. Good thing today is a rest day!

Notes from my run:

Easy Run of 3 Miles. I didn't look at the Forerunner 305 at all during the run. Instead, I just ran on feel. I think I did pretty good, as my average heart rate was 153 bpm, and I actually ran reverse splits (unintentionally):

3 Miles in 32:57 @ 10:58/mile. 11:11, 11:03, 10:42