faster with age

    I wasn't sure what to expect today. I wanted to do a long run hopfully 16 or 17 miles. My hamstring has been allowing me to run [ as long as it's not to fast] but my calf has been a problem since mondays run and worse after wed. run. I decided to just run real easy and stop at the first sign of a problem and put it off till next week if I had to. I decided to take 1 min. walk breaks every 1/2 mile and take a 10 min. break about every 5 miles. I figured I could get in more miles that way and recover faster. I went 4 miles before my first break which turned into a 1 hour break [after getting side tracked] so really a seperate run. Then I took 10 min breaks at miles 9 and 14 and a 5 min break at mile 18. I felt as good at 18 as I did at 14 so I ran another 2 to make it 20. I ran for 3:10 at 9:25 pace [ not counting the 4 breaks] I figure I lose 1 min. per mile walking so my actual running pace was probably around 8:25. I may have been dumb to do this but I feel fine now. After nearly 5 weeks of next to no running, I went from 4 miles [ with a break in the middle] a week ago monday  to 5 wed. [with break] then 7 fri. then 12 this mon. then 8 wed. to 20 today. If I can get through that without injury I'll be amazed. But with the marathon in 3 weeks I've only got 2 weeks to get in some good runs. Gotta risk it a little I guess. I was running 70 a week just before the injury so hopfully thats not all gone. My calf was slightly sore but never got any worse maybe even felt better at the end. Hammy had a bit of a burn going about like normal. It got a little worse at the end but felt fine after I quit.