Bret

Easy relaxed 11 miles after taking yesterday off for family time, and recovering from a nasty head cold.  Enjoyed running up to Dunedin High School and running along the sidewalk and path between County Road 1 and Pinehurst behind the track and stadium where I used to run with the cross country team and with the distance crew during track season - which is basically the same as it was 25 years ago (Rob and Doug). 

PM - lunchtime back at work for hopefully a quiet week where I can get caught up on a few projects and do some planning for 2012.  Started to run outside but the valet outside the Wellness Center told me the radar said a strong storm was closing in within 25 mins. So I turned around and went back inside on the treadmill and did a steady state 10 miles.  The storm actually hit about 15 mins into the run and was not all that fierce - but just the same I stayed dry inside. 

PM - late start for a lunchtime run.  Very cool by Florida standards (low 60's less than 50% humidity) - but I wasn't feeling it today.  In fact as I started off, I felt like I had tweaked something in my left calf muscle - and stopped and then began again slowly.  Seemed to be running along fine until about 7 miles when it started really becoming painful again - so I ended the intended 10-11 miles at 9 and used the foam roller in the gym to try to stretch it out.  Feels like it may be lingering from skiing last week in the ski boots where you kinda press forward against your shins.  Odd though that I have not had anything in the way of severe soreness there since then.  Will keep an eye on it, and may give it a days rest or cross train tomorrow instead.

PM - lunchtime.  Left calf was extremely tender and painful following yesterday's run - so I decided to take it easy today.  Started off just planning to walk and then test it a little bit.  Turned out to be a bit of a walk/jog for the first mile or so where I was very cautious to not put full weight or power on the leg - and as I warmed up a bit, I was able to manage a very light 3 miles of easy running around 9 min pace, careful not to push into a full run effort.  At the end it felt much better than it did yesterday.  Will contintue to nurse it along until things feel normal again.  Used different shoes and stretched again on the foam roller afterwards.  Don't know what happened to the calf and never experienced an injury/pain in that area ever before.  Weird.

PM - cross train day.  Decided not to test the calf strain today - so I went for a bike ride of about 20 miles.  No issues of pain or discomfort at all regarding the calf while cycling.  Bought some compression socks yesterday for the legs and wore them for a few hours and did some self massage and deep active release using the "stick".  Will give this a few days of rest.  Works out ok as middle daughter wants me to train with her for a triathlon in February, so I need to get some cycling and swimming training in anyway. 

Cross training again - today did 1000 yds of swimming with Riley.  Going to give my calf a full week of no running to see if it improves sufficiently to start back running again.