Mix And Match

I am combing the analysis of yesterday's and today's run. My left big toe has been bugging me during some runs over the last several weeks. During yesterday's run it started hurting earlier than normal and I was unable to fix it during the run. It felt fine immediately after I stopped running. Rewind, Thursday night, my left big toe was bugging me and my left knee was bugging me. Both were still annoying at 3:30 in the morning. Both felt fine a couple of hours later.

I decided to extend today's 5 miles to 9 miles but still keep it easy. All was going just fine until 7.5 miles when my left big toe started bugging me again. The usual tricks did not seem to fix it. I decided to try something new - center my body over my right leg. At least it felt like I was doing that.

In reality, maybe I was just centering my weight over both legs. How did I come to this conclusion? I have noticed that over the last few months my ground contact time balance shows me listing to the left. Heck, Garmin even graphs it as red. Quite possibly, I have been favoring my left leg for the last few months and my left big toe has finally had enough. Of course, that assumes I have correctly interpreted what a GCT balance that favors the left really means. Stay tuned.

I even got a new VO2 Max on todays' run. It is not 54.


Friday
GA 9. Left big toe started hurting and I could not fix it. I cut the run short. 5.13 @ 8:56 45:53 HR 130.0 bpm HR [0]:59 [1]:59 [2753]:132 [2754]:132 CAD 175.5 spm Avg. Strd. Len. 1.03 m GCT 240.3 ms Vert Osc 7.5 cm TE 3.0 Cal 582 71.7 F T1 75.8 F T2 75.5 F 11/18/2016 9:41:30 AM.
5.13 @ 8:56 45:53 HR 130.0 bpm HR [0]:59 [1]:59 [2753]:132 [2754]:132 CAD 175.5 spm Avg. Strd. Len. 1.03 m GCT 240.3 ms Vert Osc 7.5 cm TE 3.0 Cal 582 71.7 F T1 75.8 F T2 75.5 F 11/18/2016 9:41:30 AM
1 - 8:57 HR 111.7 CAD 86.8 Avg Vert Osc 7.6 Avg GCT 250.4 Avg Strd Len 1.04
2 - 8:40 HR 128.4 CAD 88.2 Avg Vert Osc 7.5 Avg GCT 249.2 Avg Strd Len 1.05
3 - 8:40 HR 139.3 CAD 88.4 Avg Vert Osc 7.6 Avg GCT 240.7 Avg Strd Len 1.05
4 - 9:02 HR 134.8 CAD 87.7 Avg Vert Osc 7.3 Avg GCT 239.8 Avg Strd Len 1.01
5 - 9:13 HR 135.4 CAD 87.6 Avg Vert Osc 7.4 Avg GCT 224.7 Avg Strd Len 1.00
0.13 - 1:18 HR 133.2 CAD 87.7 Avg Vert Osc 8.0 Avg GCT 224.6 Avg Strd Len 0.94 pace 9:45

Saturday
Rec 5. Left big toe felt better immediately after yesterday's run so I decided to do 9 easy miles today. Toe started hurting at 7.5. I centered over my right leg to fix it. My GCT L/R balance shows me listing to the left for a few months. Maybe that is why my toe gets mad. New VO2 Max 54. 9.08 @ 9:25 1:25:35 HR 124.0 bpm HR [0]:50 [1]:49 [5135]:127 [5136]:127 CAD 173.8 spm Avg. Strd. Len. 0.98 m GCT 236.9 ms Vert Osc 7.5 cm TE 2.7 Cal 913 60.1 F T1 61.8 F T2 62.1 F 11/19/2016 7:45:35 AM.
9.08 @ 9:25 1:25:35 HR 124.0 bpm HR [0]:50 [1]:49 [5135]:127 [5136]:127 CAD 173.8 spm Avg. Strd. Len. 0.98 m GCT 236.9 ms Vert Osc 7.5 cm TE 2.7 Cal 913 60.1 F T1 61.8 F T2 62.1 F 11/19/2016 7:45:35 AM
1 - 9:30 HR 110.5 CAD 86.7 Avg Vert Osc 7.7 Avg GCT 253.5 Avg Strd Len 0.98
2 - 9:08 HR 122.0 CAD 87.3 Avg Vert Osc 7.8 Avg GCT 243.2 Avg Strd Len 1.01
3 - 9:17 HR 126.7 CAD 87.3 Avg Vert Osc 7.5 Avg GCT 236.8 Avg Strd Len 0.99
4 - 9:15 HR 127.2 CAD 87.4 Avg Vert Osc 7.3 Avg GCT 237.0 Avg Strd Len 0.99
5 - 9:18 HR 128.6 CAD 87.0 Avg Vert Osc 7.4 Avg GCT 237.8 Avg Strd Len 0.99
6 - 9:27 HR 127.0 CAD 87.0 Avg Vert Osc 7.5 Avg GCT 236.1 Avg Strd Len 0.98
7 - 9:30 HR 125.7 CAD 85.8 Avg Vert Osc 7.6 Avg GCT 246.1 Avg Strd Len 0.99
8 - 9:41 HR 123.6 CAD 86.5 Avg Vert Osc 7.6 Avg GCT 228.8 Avg Strd Len 0.96
9 - 9:39 HR 124.8 CAD 87.1 Avg Vert Osc 7.4 Avg GCT 215.5 Avg Strd Len 0.96
0.08 - 0:46 HR 127.6 CAD 86.4 Avg Vert Osc 7.8 Avg GCT 216.8 Avg Strd Len 1.00 pace 9:20