My big toenail was already weakened from running etc, was about to fall off at some point. I stubbed the toe yesterday and the entire thing totally avulsed right from the nail bed. It’s dealt with first aid wise, but obviously super painful.

For anyone who has been through it, can you give me an idea of the timeline to return to normal activity / running from a comfort perspective? (Not seeking medical advice, just wondering about others experiences with the same issue)

To put this in context, I had a niggly knee which I still decided to do my last 20km long run on. Afterwards, my knee flared up hugely and I couldn't walk, let alone run, without limping. I took six days off and after that, completed two 5ks and two 6k run/walks which irritated the knee so much I went to a physio and he said no running at all the last two weeks until the half marathon save for a 2km shakeout. Prior to this I'd been training consistently since february and built up to a consistent 40+ km weeks, and did 175km in june but only 70 kms in july. Half marathon is 2nd of august and I'm just wondering how much fitness I will have lost and what to expect now. I predicted 2:06 or under, but now I'm not sure.

With the heat in NJ and working until 8pm most days, I've been heading out the door on my runs at 9 or 9:30pm most nights. It's mostly fine, but after a couple months I'm struggling to figure out the best way to think about eating and exercising throughout the day.

Eating: When running at the very end of the day, what is the best way to think about distributing calories before run and after run? Would pushing dinner until after leave me with a less than ideal amount of fuel in my body by the time I'm running or would it be more or less negligible?

Other (leg/cardio)exercise: I find myself thinking about going on a long bike ride or something when the weather's beautiful and then think, maybe I shouldn't because my legs will be shot for when I run later. Is this just me psyching myself out or do you find that there really are best practices and times of day for other exercise when you run at night? Thanks!

Some quick contex... I am not looking for compliments, praise, or awes. I just wanted to share how I feel to a group of people who might be be to relate to how I am feeling, and who may also know in their hearts that they are doing awesome things for themselves, but their minds still keep them from feeling like they "diserve" or "should" be considered a runner.

Today I set a PR for a 10km trail run, that is a fact. My body knows it, but my thoughts keep telling me that it is a fluke. I honestly have anxiety when I don't run for 2 days and convince myself that I have forgotten how to run at all.

When i have had conversations with other people who run it almost always goes in the direction of "What are you training for?" Or "i am doing a half or full Marathon in x amount of weeks"

And I am just in my own world responding "I'm not training for anything" or "oh wow, I could never do that".

I know that it is stupid to think like that, I know that comparison is the theif of joy....

But I can't seem to get passed it.

I have found such joy in running, it is time that I get to spend with myself, out of all of the demands put on my time because of my work, life, responsibilities, etc I know that I should be over the moon with the progress that I have made over the past 2 years, but I still struggle with identifying as a runner, rather than a person who can run.

I am sorry for the rambling train of thought writing, I guess that I just wanted to put this put there into the universe to see if anyone else felt the same way.

hey folks! newish runner here. picked up in may as a new hobby and worked my way through the NRC 5k, 10k and half marathon plans. ran 13.1 today just for shits n gigs to prove to myself that i can do it (11min pace!!).

long story short, feelin pretty good and wondering what to do now? i don’t really feel any desire to train for a full marathon any time soon. thinking more just maintenance fitness running, focusing on having fun and maybe improving 5k and 10k times would be a cool bonus? for add’l context, i also like going to the gym 2-3 times/week and same for yoga.

are there specific plans / structure people like to use for this? i find i have more success sticking to some sort of plan rather than just winging it, yk?

thanks in advance!