The week in training (well sort of) . . . February 3rd, 2013

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013: Having just completed a little over seven miles, I was feeling great on my run, despite having gone 18 miles the day before.  I was weighing my options and was getting ready to start a third lap of about 3 miles.  In fact, I was seriously considering doing a fourth lap, and pushing my total miles to around 15 miles.  Why not go for it I thought to myself.  My legs felt good, my heart rate was steady, and I was making a pretty good pace.  I moved over to the right side of the trail, and that's when I felt my right calf start to hurt.  I ran another couple hundred yards thinking it might just be a little sore from the day before, but the pain continued.   I stopped and stretched a little bit, and this seemed to help.  Maybe just a cramp, I thought.  I started to run again, but the pain returned.  I stopped and walked for a bit.  The pain subsided.  This back and forth continued for the next quarter mile.  I finally wound up walking/ jogging back to the house, and covered just a little under 9 miles.  That evening, as we sat and watched the super bowl, I applied some ice to my leg and determined that I needed to take a few days off.  So that's what I did Monday through Friday this week, and it seems to have paid off.
Saturday, February 9th, 2013: It turned out to be a good week to take some time off from exercise.  I was incredibly busy at work all week, and it was nice to wake up on Saturday morning without the thought of a 3-5 hour run to look forward to.  Instead, I was hoping to get on the trainer and ride for a couple of hours.  However, when I got downstairs, I discovered that the back tire on the bike was completely flat, indicating a puncture.  As I didn't have a replacement tube handy, and I didn't want to wait to patch one, I decided to move instead to the treadmill. I figured that a mixture of running/ walking for the next hour would be a good way to see how my calf would hold up.  I was a little nervous at first, but I completed the run without any trouble.  I took it very easy and only covered a little over 5 miles during the hour, but it felt good to do something again, and the calf felt fine when all was said and done.  I'm thinking that I may have slightly strained it last Sunday during my run.  One of the things that I'd done is switched to my Green Silence for the run.  I love those shoes, but knowing there is a significant difference between the GS's (they're essentially flats with less of a heel drop) and my Ghost V's (more cushioning, higher heel to toe drop), I'm guessing that it was just a little too much stress for my lower legs.  Since I seem to be recovering a little, I think I'll try to get back into the swing of things and resume  my training.  If that goes well I'll shoot for a long run again next Saturday.  There's plenty of incentive as the picture at the top indicates (84 days from now)!