Mudslinging

Since I was so stoked for Moab, and since I needed to find out the state of my foot, I decided to run my own 34-mile race.
Since running the paltry 5-mile loop of Wash. Park at full speed had left my foot hurting something feirce a couple weeks ago, I decided that pavement was not an option.
That was a good choice.
Unfortunately, I chose Green Mountain. Bad choice - but where else? I probably should've tried Cherry Creek Resevoir or Chatfield State Park. But I didn't.
Green Mountain was covered with mud. I thought the southern trails would've been melted and dried. Instead, there was 1-3" of mud nearly every step of the way. There was snow here-and-there. The snow was actually better footing than the mud.
I brought several pairs of shoes, and used them. One whole loop around was about 6.7 miles. So my CR-V was my aid station. I started with my Goretex montrails, then my Goretex Solomons, then my Vasques.
I don't mind getting dirty, but this was ridiculous - worse than the Salida Marathon last year. So I thought of it this way:
- Good training for Salida in 4 weeks
- Good training for the Bataan Death March in 5 weeks
I didn't make it 34 miles. My left ankle started hurting as if sprained. I've been feeling this off-and-on for a month. It makes no sense. I've been taking it easy. Any little tweaks have had ample opportunity to heal, and this tweak didn't exist at the end of my season. So where did it come from?
All I can think of is I keep sitting stupid in my office chair. My left knee is bent and my left foot is buried underneath my chair with my ankle bent at an uncomfortable angle. I get so wrapped-up in my technical chores that it isn't until I'm hurting myself that I notice. This is a chronic bad habit. I need to dig out the old ankle brace and start wearing it to work. Maybe changing my chair heighth will also help.

The photo below isn't slanted - it's just the way the snow/trail was.
Anyway, I stopped running at Green Mountain at exactly 20 miles. My last miles were on the paved bike path.

My feet hurt me as bad as they did the 1st few months of last year. When I finished the Leadville Marathon, my feet stopped hurting. I thought I was cured. No such luck. I need to build my mileage back to get rid of the pains.
Good news - today I feel human. No hobbling around.

The Snowman Stampede is next week. 10 miles. Not sure I'll run it. I seem to recall half of it is pavement. I might give my free entry to someone else and volunteer yet again.