Time to revise

Clearly I do not have the base for a FIRST-style training plan. I've been off running for a week and my left foot still feels like there's something wrong with it - the bones at the base of my toes hurt, especially when they're turned or squeezed in any way, and my ankle is sore as well. So, I think it's time to revise my training plan. I like FIRST because it allows me to do both running and yoga with a day off a week, and because it incorporates some speed work to help me get faster. But I suspect that just running longer will help me run faster right now, so maybe I don't need it. I'm thinking of using a Hal Higdon plan as the basis for my own. Thoughts? Is three days a week enough? Should I incorporate a fourth running day and give up having one day a week off, counting yoga as recovery from running and running as recovery from yoga?

Philippa is an incredibly hands-on teacher. She spends the whole morning running (literally!) from person to person, making small adjustments here and big ones there, walking through asanas with people. This morning she pushed and prodded my down-dog - heels toward floor, hips up and back, full palms down, elbows turning out, shoulders extended but not hyperextended. Then she helped me add utkatasana and virabratasana. Meanwhile she's placing people's arms behind their backs for baddha pamasana and helping someone else with headstand. There was also this one guy who I've never seen before who came in and started by hanging like a monkey from the inversion ropes in the back. I'm not sure what that was about, but eventually (thank goodness!) he started on his regular practice.

The thing I find amazing about Mysore is that the teacher can know both where we are in the sequence - as in, how far along in our practice we are - and where we are in our practice - as in, how much of the sequence we do - for the 30-odd people she sees every morning. She knows what we're working on and what we need help with, for a bunch of people at different levels who begin at different times, don't all come every day, have vastly different bodies. It never ceases to impress me.