Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

70F, south wind 21-34 mph.  Basically a preview of June temperatures today (with typical April winds).  Should get into the mid 90s this afternoon.

For the run, I started in the 8:20s and worked my way down to 7:20s.  AP was 7:53.  I was pretty happy with how I felt the whole time, given the temperature and the often ridiculous wind.  I don't think I could've broken 3:20 today but at least it wasn't as painful as I imagined.

Well, after 3 solid months with no injury concerns, I finally have another one -- left achilles area.  I had some weird twinges while running yesterday but nothing that would even make me think about stopping.  I iced it, took nsaids yesterday, and this morning it's bothering me quite a bit more while walking.  I didn't plan on running today anyway, but this feels like something that will stick around for awhile, we'll see...

Upper 30s, low wind (perfect for the long tempo I had planned).  But, I got this achilles thing.  I wanted to see if it got worse or better while running.  It mostly stayed the same, and if anything, got a little better -- just a dull ache.  I just took short strides and kept it easy, 8:16 AP.  Of course, I also had an obscene amount of anti-inflammatories in my system.  The main body of the tendon is not sore at all, any soreness I can actually touch is at the bottom of the calf.  Reason for hope?

This week will be more runs just like this (relative rest) and hopefully I can return to some better training next week since I'm supposed to be in peak training for OKC right now....

62F, winds SSW 27-45 mph.  yeah.  Obviously I'm still running easy this week, although my stride feels funny fighting that much wind.  I would say my achilles is better than yesterday, and with only a single human-size dose of mobic today.  The slight discomfort seemed to get slightly better as I ran again today, but it was still present.  Moving in the right direction though, I think.  Huge improvement from a couple days ago -- as I was limping around at work it felt like a season-ender on Monday but I am cautiously optimistic right now.  8:16 AP.

66F, wind S 12 mph.  More of the same but 8 miles today, 8:11 AP.  Achilles felt about the same, dull ache.  I'm trying to figure out if a day off is in order to speed things along.  I'd really like to get another solid week or two of really beating up my legs plus another 20+ miler before OKC.

67F, wind S 12 mph.  I decided to keep running on it since it felt like it improved overnight.  Once I started running there wasn't much of a difference though, maybe a little better but definitely not worse.  Either that, or I'm not paying as much attention to it anymore.

The run was 8:10 AP, and I felt out of shape, awkward and sluggish.  I hope I can get in a good week of training next week before I need to taper a bit.  If there is still some discomfort while running tomorrow, I might can the long run this weekend and hope to get in a 20-miler the next weekend which will still be 2 weeks out.

70F, wind S 22 mph.  Mini heat wave this weekend; the high today is 99!

8:17 AP felt tough again, really sluggish.  I can still feel a little tugging in the achilles area, but I think it's almost healed.  So my new plan is to do a really short, slow run tomorrow to hopefully finish the healing, and go long on Monday since I'll be on local leave.  My secret reason for doing the long run on Monday is that it's going to be 20+ degrees cooler.