Carpet Tack Injury But Record Breaking Month: 265 Miles!

Hello Barefooters!
I hope everyone is enjoying the great weather this Fall and getting in some nice mileage before the frosty weather hits in a few weeks.  This month of September has been absolutely fabulous for barefoot running.  We were blessed with the cool mornings in the 40s and 50s and almost no rain to speak of.  As a result, I was able to put in some of my biggest weekly mileage totals ever.  The first week was "only" 38 miles since I was still recovering from Wyoming Marathon, but I was happy with that total (since 38 is the average weekly mileage needed to achieve the 2000/year mark).  The next weeks I steadily increased to 50 miles, then 60 miles and then last week 84 miles!
I was really happy with the 84 since as the week started I was just going to run my 12.5 mile course each day for 6 days, which would have netted me 75 miles...still a big week.  However, on my otherwise uneventful Thursday run, I was coming up the biggest hill on Hinkle road and all of a sudden I felt a shooting pain in the ball of my left foot like I stepped on something big.  I took a second step and cringed again as whatever it was seemed to be stuck in my foot.  I looked and sure enough, it was.  It was a carpet tack, not the pointy end, but the side of the head (also very sharp) stuck right in the center of the ball of my foot.  I brushed it off and then reached down to retrieve it and then threw it off to the side of the road.  It looked a little rusty and I immediately thought I was glad my tetnus vaccine was up to date.
I ran the rest of the way home but stopped a couple of times to look at the wound.  It didn't really hurt that bad except once every 50 steps or so it would give me a twinge.  When I got back to the house I was half expecting to see a bloody mess, but quite the opposite, it was just a small line on the ball of my foot.  It actually didn't seem like a cut at all but just a deep bruise. 

Warning:  Don't Step on Carpet Tacks

  
I limped around the rest of the day but never really gave up on the 75 mile week goal.  At the same time, I started looking at my weekly and monthly total and realized I was dangerously close to the all time Monthly Record as well (set back in May at 260 miles).  Well I needed more than the 12.5 each day if I was going to make the monthly goal but figured I still had 4 days to get it done.  I would need to average 15 miles each of the next 4 days just to tie the record.
So the next day (Friday) I figured I'd just test the foot and if the injury wasn't too bad I'd go for big miles.  The foot held up fine but I'd forgotten to "camel up" enough at the start and started to get dehydrated by about 14 miles...so I gave up on the 18 and turned in a 15 miler.  Still not bad considering the nail injury and still added 2.5 miles from the day before.
Saturday I camel'd up well and went for the 18 again and this time no problem.  Since I always take Sundays off, I knew I'd have 2 days left to get the record.  Monday, I started early (in the dark with headlamp) and turned in a solid 17.  Then Tuesday, today, last day of the month, I capped it off with a "easy" 15 miler but I was worn out afterwards.  A little rest is in order!
I'll include my daily totals below after my monthly total just to reiterate the daily totals need to acheive this monthly record.  Thank You God once again for the amazing recovery ability of this wonderful human body.  Thank You for this temple!

Have a Happy Fall Barefooters!

Barefoot Dan

September Mileage:  265.30 Miles (new monthly record)

 

	Daily
Date	Mileage
01-Sep-14
02-Sep-14
03-Sep-14	4.21
04-Sep-14	9.03
05-Sep-14	15.15
06-Sep-14	10.02
07-Sep-14
08-Sep-14	8.36
09-Sep-14	8.42
10-Sep-14	8.42
11-Sep-14	8.42
12-Sep-14	8.39
13-Sep-14	8.47
14-Sep-14
15-Sep-14	10.13
16-Sep-14	10.1
17-Sep-14	10.03
18-Sep-14	10.09
19-Sep-14	10.09
20-Sep-14	10.11
21-Sep-14
22-Sep-14	12.58
23-Sep-14	12.64
24-Sep-14	12.65
25-Sep-14	12.63
26-Sep-14	14.92
27-Sep-14	18.18
28-Sep-14
29-Sep-14	17.12
30-Sep-14	15.14