Please, oh please don't let it be...

... a stress fracture. That's right. Only a few days after I blogged about finally feeling an intense love of running, I feel a little twinge of pain on the top of my left foot. Not enough to cause me to cry or curse or stop running.

And then, of course, that pain got a little stronger and a little more intense. If this had happened a year ago, when I was running in shoes, I would have forged on -- a little discomfort wasn't going to stop me (I was already in constant pain; a little more wasn't going to break the camel's back). But this is now, where I'm a barefootin' girl and I can't afford to hurt my precious feet. So, I backed off running for about 5 days and stuck my foot in a bucket of ice & water (how, I wonder, do athletes SIT in ice baths without going absolutely mad?).

I'm thinkin' that a few things contributed to this pain:

1. I did a pretty fast workout on the treadmill the week before the foot started to talk to me. For some reason, I feel like I'm flying when I do anything on the treadmill, and I know that I don't pay nearly as much attention to my form when I'm running on it. I can definitely say that I was pounding harder on my feet during that workout than I should have been.
   
2. I wore heels for about 6 hours straight soon after my treadmill workout. Super. Stupid. Idea. Ok, ok, I have to say that they are cute heels and they totally completed the outfit. A girl can't let herself totally go when she starts tickling the pavement with her baresies (is that a real word?). But back to the point...my feet aren't used to that much altitude.

I'm really hoping that this isn't a stress fracture. I've never had one, so I dont' know how they are supposed to feel. But what I do know is that the pain isn't super intense, so I'm going to take it easy and ice a lot to see if that will help. I did a "maintenance" run this morning (a short and sweet 22 minutes) and things felt in good order. Will keep you posted on how the foot heals (fingers crossed).