Conflicted

I'm working on the first of three very big cups of coffee as I sit down to write this. And if you read this blog regularly, you know that I don't mix coffee and exercise.

As I'm having coffee today then, I won't be working out. My heel pain is still there and by not running today I'm erring on the side of caution.

I'm feeling conflicted about the whole thing. On the one hand, I feel bad because I had a training plan and now I'm not going to run my required distance for the second consecutive day. On the other hand, I have to consider the potential damage I could do and consider my schedule for the upcoming week. I've got quite a few games remaining this week and next so I need to keep that in mind as well.

Still, I don't feel quite as bad as I otherwise could. The midweek runs right now are short, two or three miles. I don't know exactly how much I'm running during games but I'm running quite a bit. It may not be for two consecutive miles but I'm running around, stopping, starting, raising my heart rate, all that good stuff. Now, it's not ideal in terms of training for a half marathon but I am not completely inactive; far from it.

While I'm getting some sort of activity during the week, I still need to get the long distance runs in on the weekends. I may move up my eight-mile run to Friday but either way I'm still going to get out and run that this week.

Once the soccer season ends on Feb. 12 (for me anyway), I will not have to wear my soccer cleats for a while. I will stick to distance running and training for my half-marathon while my heels recover. I think they can recover without complete rest and inactivity because I won't be wearing my cleats. Running with cushioned shoes is different than running with cleats, so hopefully that won't impede my training.

I suppose this is all part of my training regimen as well, to have the ability to roll with the whatever obstacles go my way.