In Need of Rest

Distance: 1 mile
Time: 8:33

I had high hopes for today's run. The aches and pains I was feeling Sunday and Monday had disappeared and last night's run felt great. I figured tonight, being only 1 mile, would be a breeze, with possibly a new 2010 PR. Yet, as soon as I started running I immediately knew things weren't going to go so great. I decided to head up to Granite Hills High School to run my mile. Last time I ran at Granite I clocked a 7:58, so I figured I'd try for another sub-8 mile. But, even though I no longer felt any back pain, the muscles in my legs were killing me. My calf muscles and lower tendons felt tight and sore and for the first quarter-mile I felt clumsy and completely stiff. I tried long strides and short strides, but nothing felt good; I simply had no fluidity of motion. Right away I knew I could forget trying to get any record times. By the half-way point things began to improve slightly. I didn't feel so awkward in my stride and I got a decent pace going. And finally at the 3/4 mark I was able to feel like I was actually running and so for the last quarter I gave it all I had.... but it was only enough to come out with an 8:33. Not terrible, but I should have done better.

I was disappointed with my time, so a couple of hours after my run I went to the gym with my wife to make sure today wasn't completely wasted. I did about 40 minutes of cardio to try to make up for the half-mile of clumsy running/floundering I did earlier. But tonight wasn't all bad. I ran around 8 pm, right as the sun was going down. The picture above captured the bright sun as it set behind the mountains separating Victorville from Apple Valley. As painful as it was to run tonight, it was nice to look out and see that desert sundown.

Tomorrow's rest day will be much needed. I'm pretty sure my leg muscles are suffering from overuse. It may not seem like my workouts are much on paper, but because of how out of shape I was, even just running 1 or 2 miles a night is enough to send shock-waves through my underused muscles. My calf muscles have been bothering me for days now, but I just stubbornly continue to push through it. Tomorrow I'm going to do my best to not use them at all, for they are in need of much healing.