Travel Update

Note, please excuse the typos, etc here. I wrote this on my iPod touch which was a challenge.

Saturday 3/7
Beach and vicinity to check out the lay of the land. My feet held up okay with the bandages I wore on the plane; unfortunately they are not closing up at all and are seeping quite a bit. I did about 20 minutes barefoot (35 min total) which was much more comfortable.

Sunday 3/8
Whisked off to island hop without getting my run in, so I ran flipping hard when I got back for about 20 minutes, probably at least 2.75 miles.

Also it's worth noting that when I went to bed, my feet had swollen up again- although not as bad as from the airplane. I hope I don't have a blood clot or something. I think I'm going to buy some granny socks.

Speaking of my feet, I'm getting a little worried. The raw spots on my heels haven't closed up yet, and I'm about to run out of band-aids. They aren't bleeding but they seep pus pretty much constantly. I thought the saltwater probably helped, because at least they aren't infected right now (I'm pretty sure at least, because they're not puffy around the edges and they don't itch.)
But things get worse. Because of the heels, I have been running a lot barefoot:

Monday, 9 March
Decided to get ambitious about barefoot on the beach because the state of my feet is not improving. Did my longest barefoot run ever- about 23 minutes. The beach sand was firm and coarse, so after that time I decided to shoe up and go hit the road for another 20 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, the coarseness of the sand must have been worse than I thought because by the end I had developed several painful blisters, mostly on my toes where the skin had worn off, but worst on my right foot, on the pad between my big and second toes right where I footstrike when I mid-foot plant. Shoes last night (Monday) were impossible but today (Tuesday) it feels better.

I'm pissed because I'm really feeling like I need some long miles in my legs soon and I think the running in Sydney is going to be great- at the very least not as humid as in Fiji. I'll probably just try to run through this and maybe buy myself some Croks to get by the rest of the day when not running so that I can give the heels a chance to close up...

Tuesday, 10 March
Fate threw me a bone today, as I was lucky enough to have both seats in my row to myself on the flight to Sydney. I took advantage of this and kept my feet up the whole time. I am now glad because for the first night my feet are not swollen up! Huzzah.

Current foot condition: left foot- no blisters, heel manageable under band-aid. Right foot- blister inside of big toe, and above mentioned on pad between first and second toes. Bruise has developed on the center of the foot, approximately the size of a half-dollar. It is red and painful to the touch. I think it is from landing hard on a shell yesterday while barefoot, so I'm not too concerned. My right heel didn't bother me too much on the run until about 45 minutes in, when it started seeping and rubbing a bit more. I haven't taken off the bandage to look yet because I want to keep it covered.

Today was pretty epic. The journey went without a hitch, and after I arrived I went on a walking exploration of the central business district, including my first peeks at the opera house and harbor bridge. I walked for about 3 hours and my feet were pretty tired. So I ended up running a little farther than I intended when my run got up to 73 minutes.... I think it must have been a bit over 8 miles. Wonderful views and easy terrain, except for the loads of people. Anyways I feel I covered a lot of ground today.

I am particularly glad to report that the food so far is amazing. I ate two meat pies this afternoon on my walk and they came from different bakeries (first one was mince, which basically tasted like meaty pasta sauce, second was curry). Why do people ever eat anything else?! Flakey, delicious crusts and hot savory meaty goodness.... It's perfection. I also really like Wheatabix cereal (official cereal of the Australian national cricket team). It's dry and crispy then it soaks up your milk and is the perfect post run snack. When you eat it plain it gets pleasantly stuck in your teeth. Yum.

Wednesday, 11 March
Today it's overcast, so I turned down the beach to do a long run (77 minutes). Good choice. I discovered the best urban park for running that I've ever seen. It's called Centennial park, and it is so awesome I wish it was closer to where I'm staying. Imagine Lacy park, but with more varied terrain (hills), more bike paths, grass that is soft on your feet but supported by firm, flat soil, and at least 5 times bigger. My favorite place to run was the unpaved infield of the horsetrack. This trail meandered for at least 2 miles and wasn't even the perimeter of the park. I'm definitely doing a tempo run there soon. It took a lot of staying power to resist running barefoot today, but I just couldn't justify it with my feet the way they are.

Current foot conditions: left holding the same- okay with bandage. Right foot bruise looking better, ball-of-foot blister much better, heel still in pretty bad shape.

Thursday, 12 March
Decided to turn down the volume today since the last two days were big. I ran a little over 4 miles at the end of another long walking day (probably walked 6 miles at least?). I did about 14 minutes barefoot including 2 minutes hard, which felt totally great. Maybe I'll do a workout soon. Feet feeling better. Slept with bandages off and I think that helped so I'll do that again.

Friday, 13 March
Meat pie log: I spotted a meat pie called a "Cornish pasty" or something like that, and I asked the person at the counter what was in it. She looked at me like I was dangerously stupid. Finally she said something really vague like "meat and veggies" so I bought it to find out. I am happy to report it was filled with something approximating a meat loaf, but possibly with ground turkey not beef. It also sported onions, potatoes, carrots, bits of green something, and a crust similar to a pie crust but less flakey. It was very good.

PM was so tired I almost didn't even get out but didn't want to end the streak of me running so I went out for a short run to get my legs going. I went up to Hyde park and ran on the grass. I did maybe 10 minutes barefoot including a few strides and some drills.

Saturday, 14 March
Twas to be a really grand run, but instead it was just a half-epic day instead. basically my legs were feeling tired and stayed feeling dead until I actually got rolling on the faster portion of the run. I will be interested to map this run and find out some distances and paces.

So anyhow the run was to C-park, then I did one loop hard (3.7k I was told, I was rolling about 7's and it took me about 16:30 so I think that's about right.) I was just trying for tempo pace and it felt great although it was a little hard to stay focused as there was so much going on around me. So many people on great bikes and so many runners! And it was perfect weather too.
After my tempo loop I stopped and asked some runners at the drinking fountain about the trail and how long it was. They gave me lots of good advice and agreed it's a great park for running and invited me to run another loop with them, which I did. It was very nice and kept me from doing more barefoot and plyos, which is good. I'm thinking that's what made me sore from yesterday.

Anyway when I got back the run was a solid 75 minutes including some fast stuff. I bet it was nearly 9 miles. My feet felt okay until I walked all around paddington in my Mary janes all day and re-effed my heels, it was appaling. My legs are really dead, I hope I can sleep. The new plan is to take tomorrow am off and see how they feel tomorrow evening.

Sunday, 15 March
Much needed off day. Recharged in anticipation for Dave's arrival tomorrow morning.