Mon: 0 – Failed Attempt
Tue: 2 miles
Wed: 3.5 miles
Thu: 5 miles
Fri: 6 miles
Sat: 6.5 miles
Sun: 8.5 miles
Total: 31.5 miles
I’ll start this post off with the good news and the bad news. The good news is my ankle got progressively better throughout the week to the point where it was basically 100% by the weekend. Oddly enough it seemed to disappear about as quickly as it came on. The bad news is, and I’ve said this before, I lose fitness faster than anyone I’ve ever known. You’d think after seven weeks of averaging 83 miles per week that I could sort of flounder around for three weeks and not lose a whole lot of fitness, but OH NO, not me. I’m basically back to square one as evidenced by my Saturday run where the fastest mile was only 7:25 yet I managed to hit 171 with my heart rate. It’s ridiculous, and frustrating to say the least, but it is what it is. It’s also why I train so hard in case anyone has ever wondered. I have to, because if I don’t, I just don’t have enough talent and natural ability to run even semi-fast.
Anyway, the week did not start off on a good note at all. I made it just six minutes before having to call it a day. After that, I pretty much resigned myself to taking the rest of the week off, but walking around on Tuesday I could tell I felt better, so I decided to see how I would feel in a run. I made it two miles, not pain free, but much better than any of my other recent runs. From there I progressed to 3.5 miles the next day, 5 the day after that, then 6 by the end of the week, with each run feeling a little better than the day before. As I mentioned previously, by the weekend it was a non-issue.
So what happened? Darned if I know, and I’m not going to worry too much about it at this point. The only thing I did that may have made a difference is after my failed attempt on Monday I did some research on anterior tibialis tendonitis, which is what I’m pretty sure the issue was, and what I read indicated that stretching your calf muscles could be a big help. Accordingly, I began stretching my calves religiously that night and have continued to do so ever since, so perhaps that was the key.
So now what? Well, now I begin the process of getting back in shape. As I stated last week, I’m in no hurry to do any racing. Instead, I’ll immerse myself in training hard and see where it leads. If I begin to get some indication that I can run faster than I’ve run over the past couple years, then I’ll seek out a few races and go from there. If I can’t seem to break through the ceiling that’s been on my performances since 2011, then I’ll just keep training and be perfectly content doing so. For now I’m just happy to be pain free again and my main goal is to stay that way. Maybe more on that tomorrow, but that’s all for now.
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