A minor setback that should heal quickly, please please please let it heal quickly
Today's run could have disastrous consequences for my plans to run every day this month. Our hotel is right on the shore of the Mediterranean, and this morning we went for a run along the sandy beach -- in bare feet.
Running experts go on and on about how running barefoot on sand or grass is a good workout for all the little muscles in your feet and lower legs, and how soft sand is very low-impact. I had never done it before, so I really only planned to run 30 minutes or so; I didn't want to overwork all those foot muscles, unadapted as they are to running on sand.
If you look at the footprints I leave when I run on sand, there is a slight indentation for my entire foot, then a deep crater where my big toe digs in. Maybe I'm a forefoot runner? Who knows. But within ten minutes, the bottoms of my big toes began to feel like they had been scuffed with sandpaper. At 25 minutes, I stopped to rinse off the sand and examine them closely. I found giant blood-tinged blisters on the bottoms of both big toes (and one middle toe).
Ouch. I spent the day walking around a very hillly mountain village. The blisters really hurt. Like a needle jab in the toe with every single step. Ouch.
The one great thing about running on the sand was that my knees didn't hurt at all.
Tomorrow, if I can run at all, it will be on the beach, WITH SHOES ON.
November 12, 2007 12:05 PM
Do you have "aqua-socks?" If so, those may give you the same benefit of running on sand, but may provide enough of a barrier to the abrading qualities of sand. Of course, sand will get into them - but it won't be such a rough treatment.
I think that running on sand is a bit closer to cycling, as far as impact & what you actually work out - if you think about it, aren't your muscles sore differently than if you'd just been running? More like cycling?
Good luck!