Rob's Running Blog

10 easy miles in North Logan - Left calf hurting a bit from pulling something on Saturday.

5 slow easy miles in North Logan.  Calf is still bothering me.  8:19/mile average pace.

10 easy miles up and down Smithfield Canyon to let my calf/achilles heal.  7:53/mile average pace.

16 in Smithfield, Calf still bothering me.  8:06/mile average pace.  Legs seem too out of gas to run.  My heart rate isn't even pushing it.  Hopefully things will feel better later...

10 in Smithfield.  Calf finally starting to feel a little better. 

7:52/mile average pace.  I still need to watch it.  Also my hamstrings

are really tight--need to do more post run stretching. 

5 at noon in North Logan, 5 in the evening. Hot day today, but a couple of good runs.

10 miles at noon at the Sports Academy in Logan.  Thought I'd better do a treadmill to ease up on my calf.  Good easy treadmill run.  7:00/mile average

20 slow miles around noon in Smithfield and up/down Smithfield Canyon. Slow run in the heat. 

I drank a total of four 16 oz water bottles I placed on the course.  One at mile 8, 10.6, 15, and 17.  Four pounds of water and I still lost 6 pounds of water on the run. 199 when I started, 193 when I finished.  I drank all day and was back up to 199 in no time.

 I think it's time to start running earlier in the morning when it is cooler.

10 miles in the morning in Smithfield.  Nice slower jog 7:51/mile average. 

4.6 miles at noon on a treadmill at the Sports Academy 6:57/mile average.

10 miles up and down Smithfield Canyon in the morning.  Felt really sluggish and slow going up--couldn't get the legs moving.  On the way down things changed and I felt a lot better (amazing how going downhill does that).  Averaged around 7:50/mile.

4.1 miles at noon. 7:04/mile average pace.

10 miles in the morning up and down Smithfield Canyon.  2 during lunch in North Logan with a little cross training.

13.1 miles up and down Smithfield Canyon at noon in the heat.  Started out pretty good.  Between mile 8 and 9 my left calf started hurting pretty bad so I slowed way down to ease up on it.  I'm getting pretty frustrated about my calf...hopefully it will start feeling better soon.  Around a 7:50/mile average pace.

10 miles - no hills.  Tried to lay off the hills for my calf.  Finally was able to do a little speed work although I was running pretty flat footed as to ease up on the calf.  6:54/mile average pace.  Calf felt great until I stopped; it became a little painful afterwards.  Did some streaching throughout the day and it started loostening up a little.

I'm going to take it easy until the TOU Half Marathon this weekend to let the calf heal a little more.

6 miles, pretty flat.  7:14/mile average pace.

Two easy miles. 7:45/mile AP.

Before the race, I had a good time talking to Steve Anderson, Paul Peterson, and a bunch of others.  

I was a bit worried about my calf.   I have a pulled Soleus muscle, down close to the achilles.  Before the race, I taped it up and and was still optomistic.  I was hoping things would go well--maybe even look for a PR. 

At the start of the race, i felt really good.

Mile 1 - 6:14. - Felt great - running a little flat footed not to push off my toes for my calf.

Mile 2 - 6:28 - Still felt good.  Slowed down because I felt I started a little too fast.  Thought, "Wow, I feel great.  This will be an easy PR"

Mile 3 - 6:43 - My calf started feeling a little tight.

Mile 4 - 6:58 - Calf felt a little sore.

Mile 5 - 6:46 - Still a little sore.

Mile 6 - 6:49 - More sore, but still moving at an o.k. pace.

Mile 7 - 6:47 - Started feeling like there was a knot im my calf, but decided to keep an ok pace.

Mile 8 - 7:00 - Started to feel a little more pressure in my calf.  It wasn't moving that great. Started to slow down.

Mile 9 - 7:02 - Started to feel some pain.

Mile 10 - 7:18 - Started to be painful.  Really had to run flat footed and keep from pushing off on my left foot.  This brought my stride down to really short steps.

Mile 11 - 7:40 - Calf started really hurting.  Slowed way down. 

Mile 12 - 8:00 - Calf was really not doing well - lots of pain.  I may have been foolish to keep going.  Started telling people to run faster as they passed me, and "beat the guys ahead of me".  Cardio felt good, heart rate was only about 115-120 - I didn't feel like I was pushing it physically at all.  The small hill put a little more pressure on the calf. 

Mile 13 - 7:35 - Ran a little faster though the pain, but not motivated at all.

Mile 13.18 - 7:46 pace. 

Afterwards I was pretty bummed out about the run.  I ran the Smithfield "Not yo mamma's half at a faster average pace per mile on my Garmin (even considering it was short).  I even ran the first half of my last 5 marathons at a faster pace. 

After thinking about it, considering the cirumstances I now feel o.k. about it.  I wanted a PR, but it was still good to be able to jog it (even through the pain).  There was a lot of great PR's and a lot of people did an awesome job.

Tried to do a slow couple of blocks to see how my legs feel.  Shouldn't have - calf is too painful to run.  Current strategy - take a full week off - try to get some stationary biking and swimming at the Sports Academy. 

I'll see how things feel next Monday.  If my calf feels o.k., I'll start out slow, try to get at least 50 miles, and then do the same the next week.  Afterwards I'll do a two week taper. 

Hopefully not do anything too foolish to realy screw the calf up...

30 min recumbent bike at the Sports Academy.  Relax and let the calf heal.