Back To The Grind

Distance: 1 mile
Time: 9:04

What started out as one day of rest suddenly turned into five! As I mentioned in my last post, my body was beginning to fall apart on me and so I knew I needed some extra days of recovery. My last run, on July 3, was a disaster, as muscle pain prevented me from hitting any sort of stride (21:43 in 2 miles). And then the hike I went on to the summit of Mt. Baldy on Monday caused even more problems: strained calf muscles and a bad sunburn. I had no choice but to rest on Monday and Tuesday, but I thought for sure I'd be ready for action by Wednesday -- though my body had other plans. I still couldn't use my calf muscles without pain. I sat out Thursday as well. Eventually my mindset became one of patience and reason. I thought back to my pre-hike condition -- I was in severe muscle pain, I was stiff and tight all over, and I really hadn't had a good run in quite some time. My body needed rest, real rest, more than just one day. So I figured I'd give my body a whole week. I probably could have forced a run last night, but instead I went on a date with my wife to see Toy Story 3. It was a relaxing night, and I'm glad I was forced to take the a week off from running to let my body do some serious recovering.

But I knew for sure I didn't want to take more than one week off. After all, I had put in a solid 6 weeks of training, and I didn't want to see it go to waste. So tonight I laced up my running shoes for a much-needed run. It felt great just to get in that mode again -- to start stretching and envisioning the run. My original intention was to do 2 miles along my usual neighborhood route. But after stretching I realized that I wasn't 100% yet. That same lower calf pain began to resurface and I began to worry that I would be right back where I was a week ago. At the suggestion of my wife, I decided to cut back to 1 mile. I'm glad I did, too, because tonight's run wasn't one of my better ones. It was an improvement over last Saturday's sloppy run, but I felt more winded than I had been feeling, and I did feel some muscle pain again. I tried my best to keep a steady, quick pace, but my body was too busy getting used to the movements and motions of running again. In the end my pace was too slow, and I clocked in at 9:04, which is the first time I've run over 9 minutes since I ran a 9:12 on June 10, exactly one month ago! I'm not considering it a setback, though, as it's expected that after a week off there will be some time needed to get back into the swing of things. Tomorrow, hopefully, I will try out a 2 mile run and see how that goes. My only hope is that I can get rid of that pesky muscle pain in my left calf for good, for I feel like it has been my lone nemesis in my drive to lower my times.

Another motivator I have is that we've planned another big hike for the end of the month. We're planning on summiting San Jacinto Peak, which is taller than Mt. Baldy by about 800 feet. It will be a grueling hike, and I want to make sure I'm in good shape for it.