No Stopping

So, I wrote out an entire blog post yesterday, but apparently the internet rejected it as it's nowhere to be found. I'll just give you a quick summary. Yesterday morning was the Terrier run. I was actually really excited to be back with the group and just to have the group dynamic again since I had just had a week of working out alone. We did our normal strides before heading out for the main workout.

The workout was that the Sprint/Olympic group would do 4 x 1200 meters (0.75 miles). Each 1200 meters would be broken down into 200 meter segments. The first 200 would be at 95% effort and the second 200 would be at 75% effort and then you would just alternate back and forth. Once you got to the 1200 meter mark, you would then rest for 2:30 before starting again. We ran over to the starting point and I noticed then that my calves were still giving me trouble. I thought I would just try doing the workout and see how far I could get.

I did the first 600 and then I just realized that it wasn't going well and that I should stop for a minute or two to stretch and see if that would make it better. I started running again and it was even worse. Then I decided that I would just give up since my legs clearly weren't happy and walk back to Drew's. Total run: 1.6 miles in 15:34 (9:44 pace).

I was pretty frustrated because all I wanted to do was to complete a workout without walking or stopping or giving up or having some other problem. When I started walking back, I ran into Robert who asked if I was okay and gave me a new stretch to try out to see if that would help. Shortly after that, I ran into Spencer, our running coach, and he also suggested that I start foam rolling my calves. He gave me another (different) stretch to try and also suggested that I should just try jogging very slowly and see how my legs were at a slower speed.

I walked for a few more minutes and then decided that I would just give it a shot and jogged about as slow as I could go and it was like a miracle cure! Granted, I wasn't anything great, but my calves weren't hurting and I was still jogging, so it seemed like it was better than nothing. I jogged back to Drew's without further incident, so I'm really hopeful that although it was really slow and I'm not very happy with the time, that I can do Westchester. I was really frustrated during the group run and was thinking about having to walk the 6 miles at Westchester, but now it seems like it's more realistic if I just remember to slow down. Total jog: 0.93 miles in 11:18 (12:11 pace).

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So, as promised, here's one of the photos my mom took while I was on vacation. This was on one of my runs after swimming. As you can (maybe) see, I ran barefoot on the sand, which I think might have been the cause of my current calf issues. Although I just finished reading this article in Time Out New York that says that running barefoot is supposedly better for you. But I'm not sure I consider them to be the foremost authority on running.

Yesterday proved to be quite a busy day with Drew's big move into my apartment! The movers were scheduled to come in the afternoon and in the morning when I was busy packing things up around the apartment, I managed to slice my finger open with a butter knife. It takes talent, I know. This cut that sounds quite silly meant that I had to cancel my swim this morning with Laura as the thought of bleeding into a public pool (because, yes, my cut still is bleeding from time to time) didn't really seem like a good idea.

Instead, that meant that I hit the gym this morning with my new "roommate" with a band-aid securely fastened around my cut. We did a quick warm-up on the treadmills. I decided to take what I learned yesterday and just take it slow. I ran for 5 minutes at speed 5 (12:00 pace) and went 0.40 miles. Then we hit the weight room.

These were our exercises:

Leg Press

Set 1: 10 reps @ 90 pounds

Set 2: 10 reps @ 115 pounds

Set 3: 10 @ 115 pounds

Squats

Set 1: 15 reps with bar + body weight

Set 2: 15 reps with bar + body weight + 30 pounds

Set 3: 15 reps with bar + body weight + 40 pounds

Hamstrings

3 sets of 10 reps @ 25 pounds

Drew also did calf raises, but I thought it might be a bad idea since I know that my calves are already bothering me to do some weight training. Although I guess the weight training could help strengthen them to prevent further annoyance while running, but I just didn't feel like taking the chance today. I also stretched between sets, which I think was a good thing to do.

He then headed off to the Arc Trainer (a machine that I'm not a huge fan of) and I went back to the treadmill. We had agreed to do a half hour of cardio before heading back home. I decided that I would just keep with the same premise as earlier and take it slow and see how my calves felt. I set the treadmill to level 5 (12:00 pace) and started jogging. I also told myself that it was going to be really important to not stop on this half-hour jog. I know it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, but something about it mentally was really important to me to know I was capable of going for a half-hour with no breaks and no hurting parts.

And guess what? I did it. I didn't even hate it. I also never felt like I wanted to stop and rest. So, maybe my problem recently is that I've been running too fast - especially in the heat. I'm not going to lie. I definitely liked it more when I saw my minutes per mile going downward, but I'm not going to sweat it big time. I'd rather actually enjoy this than hate every second or feel like I'm getting all cramped up, so I'll be fine with the slowing down. In my 30:15 that I was on the treadmill, I went 2.5 miles.

Total for today: 2.9 miles in 35:15 (12:09 pace)