Thursday, May 9, 2013

Back on Track

Workout: 11 miles including 9 tempo at 9:44, Connects

Booyah, bishes-Jeano's back!


Following the Great Panic of 2013 and subsequent rehab attempts, I decided to lay low for a few days and let the leg mellow. Time may not heal all wounds, but it (sort of) healed this one. By Tuesday, I could walk nearly without pain. I couldn't calf-raise without pain (it hurt most when I pointed my foot), but I could walk just fine. I figured that was good enough, so I headed out for my scheduled 9-mile "strength" workout. What? The trail right next to my work is finally free of snow! I couldn't miss it!

From a snowier day. Now that it's hot out, I don't have anywhere to carry my phone!

Um, yeah. That was dumb. During my warm-up mile, I quickly realized I wasn't ready for speed yet so downgraded to 5 easy miles, the workout I had missed on Monday. I had to downgrade once again when I realized the pain was throwing off my gait and causing strange aches elsewhere. I ended up calling it a day at 3 miles, which at this point in my training is such a pitiful distance I didn't even reward myself with a shower afterwards (don't worry, I didn't need one... I think).

I pouted a bit, took my scheduled Wednesday rest day, and this morning (Thursday), my leg was feeling dandy. I did some calf raises to test it out and although there was some tightness, it didn't really hurt. I fumbled my way through a few Nalgene massages throughout the day, threw on my compression socks once 5:00 rolled around (never running without those again), and hit the trail, hoping for a better result this time.

Fortunately, it went well! I kept telling myself I was going to restrict myself to a 2-mile stretch of trail so I could get back to my car quickly if something went wrong, but I couldn't help myself. Running on a quiet (albeit crowded) trail is so much nicer than running past zooming cars during rush hour. I made it 4.8 miles before I hit snow and decided to turn around.

I had to stop a few times to, among other things, hide my long-sleeve shirt in the woods, tiptoe through icy tunnels, and make an emergency bathroom stop (funny story: I randomly found a fort so took advantage of the extra privacy to do my business. Sorry kiddos). Nonetheless, I felt pretty strong and was able to settle right in to my desired pace (9:44). AND I ran without music! I've done all my recent tempos with music, but I wasn't comfortable blasting tunes while running in the woods so ditched the headphones. Fortunately, I was happy enough to be away from the main roads that it didn't end up mattering much.


The afflicted leg is sore right now, but the soreness has moved down the calf. Now it just feels like regular soreness. Before, it felt like the muscle was doing something funky to the bone when it contracted. Nothing harmful, just painful. That's progress!

I'm planning to continue training as scheduled (yay!), but will (reluctantly) tone it down for the rest of the week if my leg doesn't feel up to it. I think we're in the clear, though! Thanks for calming my silly worries, blogfriends.

It was not sunny today so you get a not-sunny winter picture. That's the Alaska Native hospital. I've never understood why it looks... Arizonan?

9 comments:

  1. Minus points for an over-optimistic plan for Tuesday. Bonus points for realizing your plan was too optimistic, and revising. Live and learn?

    Make sure you stay on flats for now, and give it a few more days before you push any speedwork (I'd even opt for distance over speed, at the moment). Keep rolling/stretching/carefully warming, and keep on eye on it - if things keep looking good, I'd say you're moving toward the clear.

    Those snow-capped mountains are definitely NOT Arizonian... :)

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    1. Thanks, Holly! I'm thinking I'm nearing "the clear"-no pain when I run and only a slight twinge when I do calf-raises. Thank you SO much for all your guidance!

      You're right about the mountains, but that building will forever confuse me.

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  2. Is it weird that while reading this I was singing the Backstreet Boys song "Everybody" and replaced it with "Oh my God, she's back again. Jeeeeaa-nooooo's back! Alright!" If you don't know what song that is, I'm sad for you and you're probably thinking I'm a lunatic (I get that a lot).

    But hooray for getting back on track! Take it slow and keep testing that leg out. Hopefully it stops being a needy little baby and just cooperates with you. Leave it up to one of your legs to ruin a good thing-- so selfish.

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    1. I LOVE that song!!! And now I need to listen to it (probably six million times because I can't just listen to a song once. It's a problem). It pains me to think that all these post-Cold War children currently in school probably don't even know who those old farts are.

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  3. I'm so glad that your leg is feeling better and that your run went well! Glad to hear it wasn't anything major and that you can continue with your training. That must be a big weight off your shoulders. Here's to many more awesome runs in the following weeks!

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    1. Thanks! It most certainly is a huge weight off my shoulders!

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  4. Yay for your leg feeling better and for trail running without snow. Woot. I agree that running mostly 5 miles easy sounds good until you are sure all feels well. And, can I tell you how jealous I am that you get to live in Eugene? That place is amazing. Yep, amazing.

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    1. Thanks for taking those Eugene pictures! I'm getting more and more excited about going! I'm glad to hear it passed the Professor Amy test ;).

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  5. Yay so glad your calf started feeling better (even if it was ages ago and I am only commenting now...). Also, I actually found I could never do my tempo runs with music..I started running to the beat and got all messed up, ha.

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