Going back in time to recap a good week
Time to turn back the clock and recap the week. Would like to say that I’ve been so busy running that I haven’t had a spare minute to dust off the keyboard – more like the more free time I have the busier I seem to be. That’s neither here nor there – making resolution #23 right now to make the time to get here regularly…
Saturday – Nothing crazy. Still holding off on running on land, got in the pool for 45 minutes in the morning before the kids soccer games and the rest of the crazy Saturday schedule kicked off. Leg the same – hasn’t gotten any worse, seems stable. No sharp pain at all, still just the dull tightness.
Sunday – Post Hurricane Irene, spent the greater part of the afternoon at my parents house cutting down, dragging, and disposing of trees, branches, and other assorted debris. Had the pre-season cross country picnic that evening before practice, got another medical consult from my PT Gary Karkuff (an XC dad). He seemed optimistic that if I stuck to the ‘slow twitch’ exercises the risk of any catastrophic injury was low – he advised against playing squash or entering any dunk competitions though, so I have decided to follow his advice and regret my previous commitments. 60 minutes in the high school pool that evening – deep water running with the aqua-belt. Better than nothing, after a hard day of playing lumberjack it was probably a good day for some zero impact exercise…
Monday – One of these days I’m going to have to take the leap and put on my shoes, but it wasn’t going to be today. Back into the pool for a tempo run. 50 minutes total, warmed up for 10 minutes then amped it up every 10 minutes until I had the treadmill at max speed for the final couple of “miles”. Cooled down for 5 minutes, then a nice long massage. This was probably the hardest I’ve gone since outdoor nationals – hard to tell exactly where I stand, but it was good to get the heart rate up and turn the legs over a bit.
Tuesday – Strike up the band! I found my shoes, put them on, and even remembered how to tie them. Beautiful weather – San Diego eat your heart out. Probably 80 degrees, blue skies and calm winds. Loaded into the truck to find a soft, flat trail – decided on Stony Creek. Didn’t really have a plan in mind when I started down the trail – had dreamed of an hour run but decided that 5-6 miles was probably the way to go. 3 miles out, eventually settled into a comfortable 6:30 pace. The trail is ever so slightly uphill on the way out, so on the way back things inadvertently started to heat up a bit. I could tell I was speeding up, but felt good so I let it go. I could feel the achilles with every step, but it wasn’t really pain so I just kept monitoring it. Cruised the 3 miles home pretty effortlessly in around 6:10 pace. Like Monday it was good to get in a run like, as my kids like to say, ‘the olden days’. In this case the ‘olden days’ just happen to be only 8 weeks ago, but it seems like an eternity….
Wednesday – Went to work Tuesday night, ended up back down in Fort Myers. My legs were pretty sore from the previous days’ run, but I nevertheless logged an easy hour around the access roads and parking lots of the enormous mall that adjoins our hotel. Weather was jungle hot, ended up being a shorts dripping sweat-athon. Achilles status: no change. So far so good…
Thursday – Only had a one-day trip, so I forged through the night to get home Thursday morning. After back-to-back runs I opted for the pool, put in an hour at medium intensity (which I hope becomes ‘easy’ intensity soon). Have been running barefoot in the pool for the last couple weeks due to a blister on the back of my left heel (what else could go wrong), don’t know much about angles and achilles but it feels good so I’ve stuck with it. I can also finally feel some of the swelling from the softball ‘strike’ starting to leave my lower leg, which I hope can only help its flexibility.
Way too much blogging for one night. I hope that despite the tightness I will be able to keep putting some more miles on my legs and have them ready for a late speed push in a week or two. 5th Ave is three weeks from tomorrow, a lot of work to do between now and then but the first steps are always the hardest ones to take and with them out of the way it’ll soon be time to get down to business….
