My Running Log

I lost my dinner on the side of the freeway last night. Those were the best fireworks I experienced. :) I'm sure you really wanted to know that. :)

I was discussing with my wife about my race, and one thing we were wondering is if the treadmill running has maybe caused me to have a harder time pushing in races. Maybe because I've gotten used to it pushing me. Maybe. Either way, I'm going to run less on the treadmill in preparation for St. George.

I did an easy run. Felt super good and wanted to push harder but didn't. But after 2.4 miles, I felt a sudden pain in my left calf and had to stop. Weird. I walked for about 0.5 miles until it loosened up and then ran again. Then stopped after awhile to walk and then ran again when it felt better. Did this one more time.

It still feels pretty tight. I am 99% sure it is in the muscle rather than tendon or ligament. I'll see how it feels in the morning. This won't stop me from training, but I may have to do some cross training or something.

Feeling under the weather this evening. Also my left calf is still very sore after yesterday's incident. Decided to go extremely easy. So walked the first mile, ran 2.25 miles at 9-10 minute pace, then walked a 0.25 mile cooldown. It was encouraging that I was even able to run without too much discomfort. Will take it a day at a time until feeling better.

My left calf was pretty sore throughout the day. I worried about it. But when I got out and ran (easing into it with some walking), it actually felt pretty good. Definitely wasn't painful, but I could feel it a little. I increased the speed gradually, and held 8:00 pace for 2 miles. So I am pretty sure that I am back in business but will do it gradually. Hopefully by Saturday I can do a long run, but we'll see.

The left calf felt 5000% better throughout the day today. I feel really blessed for that. Tonight I was feeling motivated and good, so I ran 6 miles outside. No walking at all. Average pace was 7:57, and it had some hills. Went down to 10600 South and up to 1300 East. Beautiful evening. Encouraging run after two days of barely being able to run!

I was going to start 6 day-a-week running this week, but it didn't work out today with taking care of the baby while my wife is gone. But the great thing is that my weight was the lowest it's been all year. Maybe those treats my wife made did the trick. :)

Ran the 14 mile loop that goes down 1300 East, up Wasatch Blvd to the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and down 9400 S. I reallly was feeling good and wanted to push it the first miles. The first 4 miles were all under 7:45 pace. Then I hit the massive hill, so I had miles at 8:26 and 11:00. There was still a lot of climbing left. My goal was to stay under 9:00 per mile. At mile 10, I ran out of gas completely, so I just tried to survive. Fortunately, it was downhill and with a big wind at my rear, so I was able to stay below 9:00 per mile. Interestingly, I seemed to gain strength when I hit the flat and slightly uphill portions (after lots of downhill). Average pace was 8:28. Total run time: 1:58.

I was gung-ho for this run, but I still struggled. It didn't give me a lot of confidence for longer future runs. But at least it had hills, so that's a comforting thought. And it's these types of runs that will help me improve. I will have to practice eating while running to avoid running out of gas.

This week started on a real low point. I worked forward from there, and I am extremely grateful now to be recovered from this calf strain! Next week I really hope to get some solid mileage and to get back to speed work. It's been awhile!