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?