My Dang Feet!

This morning Elle woke up at exactly one minute before my alarm was set to go off at 5::45. Thank goodness, I didn't have to hear that annoying sound! I put her back in bed, then hung around, debating whether it was worth it to go run instead of going back to bed. Finally going for a run won out. I was just scheduled to run 5 miles with 3 x 3:00 aerobic intervals. No problem. I had half a banana, got dressed and put my shoes on. Ouch. That kind of hurt my bunion!

I thought it might be ok, and headed out on my run. I made it less than a block before I had to turn around. It hurt too bad to run on. I felt like I was almost limping. I thought about just skipping my run for the day, but then I decided I'd try my old Pearl Izumis on and see if that was any better. And it was. SO much better! I couldn't even feel it at all. It was like a nice comfortable bed for my feet.

When I talk about "my bunion" you're probably picturing this huge disfigurement, but really it's not that big. Here's a picture:

You hardly even notice it. I had to circle it so you could find it. You wouldn't think it would cause so much trouble. Of course, the more I look at it, the worse it looks...

Anyway, I was able to run in my old shoes without any problems there. In fact, I was even planning out my ad for KSL.com to sell my Bioms because they're just too narrow for me. I thought I could sell them for half the price I paid for them and still get new shoes with the money. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that it probably wasn't their fault. Yeah, I could feel the sore bunion in them pretty bad, but I don't think they were what made it hurt in the first place. Remember, I didn't have any pain on Saturday. But then, Saturday evening I wore those red shoes again. The same ones I wore before having this same problem last time. So, maybe it's those shoes I need to sell. I also wore heels on Sunday so two days in a row did not help.

So, my foot felt better in the old shoes, but I had a really hard time going fast. I was supposed to do intervals and it was hard for me to even keep an 8:30 pace for the whole 3:00. Then I would find myself dipping down into 11 minute miles, or slower, in between. It was a pretty short run, but by the end I could tell I was getting blisters on the bottoms of both of my big toes.

Blisters? What the heck? I never get blisters! Actually, I got a couple little blisters on my run on Saturday, but I didn't even feel them while I was running. Before that, I've hardly ever had problems with blisters. I could definitely feel these ones while I was running, and I was glad I didn't have to run farther. They are pretty sore, and I had a lot of yard work and house work to do today so my feet were not happy. I'm thinking about trying those injinji toe socks, but I've got to find the time and the money to stop by somewhere and get them.

Total Distance: 5 miles

Total Time: 50:38 (That included me going back into the house for a minute)

Average Pace: 10:08 min/mile

Today was another Meatless Monday. I totally forgot about it last week, but this week I planned for it. It was kind of hard, but we ended up having some good food. At least I liked it...

For breakfast, I had oatmeal cooked with honey and cinnamon, then I added frozen blueberries and peanut butter. Mmmm, I love oatmeal with peanut butter! Not having it every day really helps it taste better on the days you do have it too.

For lunch we just had peanut butter sandwiches, and for dinner we had Moroccan Style Stuffed Acorn Squash (minus the brown sugar) which is one of my favorites, but the kids hardly ate any.

I also made some yummy orange-strawberry-bannana bread. Want the recipe? I got it from here, but I kind of improvised so I'll give you my version:

SUGAR FREE ORANGE (strawberry) BANANA BREAD
1 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. oat flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt
4 mashed ripe bananas
1 (6 oz.) can frozen unsweetened orange juice, thawed
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. fresh strawberries, diced
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix dry ingredients. Blend well the bananas, orange juice, eggs and extract. Add dry ingredients. Stir in strawberries. Pour into greased loaf pan or pans. Bake in 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until well done. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on rack. Slice thinly.

Um, at the end, I also thought it was a little weird that there wasn't any butter so I stirred about 1/4 cup butter in, and what was left of our cream cheese (about 1 oz.). I also greased the pans with butter.

We ate one whole loaf not long after it came out of the oven. Luckily we still have one loaf left. Despite having such a yummy, healthy treat, the kids were stressing me out and giving me a lot of trouble at bed time (They didn't end up going to sleep until almost 9:30. Their bedtime is 7:30.) so I ended up eating almost a whole sleeve of Thin Mints while I watched Cougar Town and folded laundry. I regret eating those, but at the same time I don't. Hey, at least we only have one sleeve left, then they'll be gone!