Injuries Suck

I am injured.

I was just worn out, beaten up, planned on taking a few days to recover and snap out of the rut. Now, I’m not sure. I went for an easy run with Natalie Saturday in LA. Very chill and slow, about 7 miles along the canal path down to the beach. I have run seven miles easy tons of times in the last few months without problem. But not this time. The last few miles my left big toe started to hurt the same way it did back in March. Again, at first, it just felt like my shoe was sort of rubbing, then pinching, then it hurt sharply. It was sore the rest of the day, but fine. I wasn’t too worried because my toe hasn’t bothered me in months. My heel had been bruised since Santa Cruz and the arch of my foot has been sore from the orthodics that are supposed to take the pressure off my toe and stop it from hurting — which is why I didn’t wear them on Saturday, because I was more worried about my heel and arch than my toe. But, my toe hasn’t hurt. Until now.

Still, I wasn’t worried.

Yesterday, I tried to go on my long run and two miles in my toe started to hurt. I kept running for a bit trying to decide if it was really hurting and then trying to decide if I should stop. Eventually, I turned around and I had to walk almost two miles back because it was hurting so much at that point.

It’s not exactly the same as the bone spur that put me out of commission for three months earlier this year. The pain isn’t at the base of the big toe, where the two bones are rubbing together and causing a bone spur. It’s in the tendon that runs along the top of the big toe, all super painful and inflamed. And, it hurts on push-off, not impact. So, it’s a little different, but same general idea.

Since I’m not really sure what caused it, but I am pretty sure the doctors aren’t going to have more of a clue this time around, there’s really not much to do right now besides rest, ice and anti-inflammatories. If I’m lucky, I can take this week off from running and use all the crazy anti-inflammatories I have left from before and it’ll be fine. But, I’m not super optimistic. If it doesn’t clear up, I’ll have to go back to the doctor and they’ll probably say something like, ‘Have you tried not running?’

It’s all very discouraging and I’m not excited about water running. Maybe I’ll be more optimistic tomorrow.