My super knotted/tight calf (which I totally gave myself by doing some hard hill work without proper warm-up, cool-down, stretching, and all that other stuff I know I should do) has taken me out of the speedwork game for the past two weeks. I've still been able to run (and I'm insanely grateful for that), but have definitely NOT been "in training" by any means. Instead, I've been living in hot pads and compression sleeves, fueling my runs on graham crackers, and just kind of treading water in all other areas of my life.
When you only have six weeks of training plan, and you miss two weeks of it, it's probably best to just cut your losses. It's mostly due to the physical stuff, but I'm also not mentally "in it" this training cycle. I've just got too many other things going on right now to focus, so the Little King's Mile is no longer a goal race for me. I'll still be going up for Flying Pig, and running it, but, without being able to train up or do any speedwork for the first HALF of my training cycle, hitting my goal just isn't feasible. There will be plenty of other opportunities this summer.
Monday
Scheduled: 2mi + 5 strides
Did: 2.01 w/5 strides @ 9:37/mi avg
"It's only two miles" was what I had to tell myself to get out of bed this morning. My training partner's out of town, and that makes it really easy to bail on workouts. Though I got through yesterday's nine miles with Beth just fine, that spot in my left calf is still there and has me nervous.
I wore my calf sleeves and didn't plan on doing the scheduled striders, but felt good enough on the way back to do them... or at least start them. I only made it through four before deciding to lay off.
I hit up my sports masseuse this evening and he annihilated my left calf. It felt like a very productive session (which is another way of saying it was relaxing the way the word "massage" would lead you to believe). I was pretty sore walking back to the train afterwards, iced that evening, and wondered if 10KTuesday would happen in the morning.
Tuesday
Scheduled: 10KTuesday
Did: 6.42 @ 9:20/mi
I woke up feeling like a new person. What had felt tight and sore the night before felt loose and easy in the morning. Hooray!!!
Still, I took it pretty easy this morning. Or, at least I thought I did. Splits were:
10:04
9:28
9:01
9:15
9:09
9:08
If that's easy, then I'm a very happy woman. :)
Wednesday
Scheduled: rest
Did: 30min bootcamp at home
Calf still feels fine. I asked my coach about doing the 800m workout tomorrow (that I missed last week), and she advised me to have at least 2, preferably 3, easy runs with zero discomfort during AND after before trying any speedwork. Guess that means tomorrow's a no track day again.
I didn't feel like going to bootcamp with the tornado watch in effect, so I opted for an at-home workout. DIY circuit training is really hard for me. I tried to mimic the feeling of bootcamp as best I could, using a whiteboard to write out the workout and a timer app on my phone. Really proud of myself for getting it done.
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| this was the worst |
Thursday
Scheduled: last week's 800m workout
Did: 4.01 @ 8:59/mi
Had plans to meet up with Birgit, but my car wouldn't start at 4:30am. Uggggghhhh. Wound up doing my own run from home as stress relief. I really tried to keep myself in check on the speed side, especially when I started feeling a little tightness in my left calf, but it didn't happen.
Friday
Scheduled: strength
Did: rest, walked ~2mi from car repair shop
Had tentative plans on doing a DIY bootcamp from home, but work got in the way. Again, if I don't work out first thing when I wake up in the morning, it does not happen.
Calf was tightish today, and I'm starting to worry about the rest of my runs. :/
Saturday
Scheduled: 8
Did: 8.11 @ 9:17/mi
This is my last weekend before the next round of ATC Saturday training begins, so I took advantage of not having the stroller and met up with our Riverside Runners group for my morning miles. It was nice to have some different faces and stories during the run.
As with all my runs this week, I made sure my calf was sleeved and hoped for the best. It never hurts, and is definitely not a strain (I've had enough of those to know what it feels like), but is decidedly something that I shouldn't be doing speedwork or hills with. We opted for the Martin's Landing route, and I felt pretty good through the first half... until we got to the BIG hill... which I walked.
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| Hello, Mr. Pointy. |
Despite the walk break, splits for this run were still amazing, which is really cool since I felt like I was taking it easy and literally didn't look at my watch at ALL during the run. :) I felt fine enough the rest of the day, but still sleeved the calf, and tried massaging it myself in the evening. Whatever that thing is is still there. :P
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| Walked a good chunk of mile 5 (check out that elevation) |
Sunday
Scheduled: 3-4 easy
Did: 3.23 suuuuuuper easy
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| Self-timer mode troubles: I couldn't get back behind the stroller in time :P |
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