Ran north through a bunch of neighborhoods. I ran along part of Highland Drive for a while and then through a neighborhood I've never seen before, etc. I started out running nice and easy. I was really holding back, but it still was about 8:00 pace, which is faster than I've been doing lately. At about mile 4, my achilles tendon started hurting. I could feel it on every stride. This pain was lower than the previous calf pain I had felt. So I slowed down, especially on the uphill parts. After another mile or two, it started feeling better. I continued with a slower pace, and it was fine. At the end, I averaged about 8:50 pace overall, but this was totally fine. I had a hard time pushing the pace, but part of that was that I wanted to be careful with the calf/achilles so I wouldn't aggravate it again and have to start over in my recovery. I'm grateful to have been able to run six days this week, even with recovering from straining my calf. Today's run was nice because it was long but felt good to me rather than a pain (as long runs sometimes do). I'm hopeful to build up the mileage next week. Interesting note...I ran with headphones for the first time today. It was awesome!! I wasn't checking my Garmin every 10 seconds (that's an exaggeration, but still) as my only means of entertainment. I listened to podcasts, so I also learned a few things. I'm definitely going to do this in the future.
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