Four in a row...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Forecast: Sunny and temperature in the 60’s. Perfect ride day…right?

I was planning on riding the bike over to Dan’s to pick up the Jeep and it would appear the stars were lining up with perfect weather for the trip. I haven’t been on the bike in two weeks and was looking forward to the change of pace.

Actually…that’s a lie. I’ve been thinking about running a fourth day in a row. Something told me I could do it and things would go well. I had this plan to put my running shoes and shorts in my backpack, ride to get the jeep and then drive to the park on the way home for a run of between 20-30 minutes. Solid plan for a good double.

And then, of course, it started to rain.

Bag the ride. I went to the park for the run telling myself ‘no more than 30 minutes’. I’d tried four consecutive days about three weeks ago and I’d gotten a pain in the calf. Now, for some unexplainable reason, I felt it would work. After going heavy with the Vaseline, I hopped on the trails…starting very slowly – a pace at which I could easily hold a conversation had anyone been around. No one was so I talked to myself.

I made my steps shorter and focused on not hitting heel first. By the end of the first mile, I was feeling totally relaxed and running very smoothly.

The longer I ran, the faster I went and the less I worried about the calf. I knew I would not be stopping at 30 minutes, feeling like I could run all night. As I reached the last mile of trail, I stepped it up again and was running around a 7-minute mile. I finished the run going uphill and wondering why some days were so easy. I finished with a 43-minute run and a calf that felt no pain. I was also thinking ‘maybe five days straight tomorrow?’

The forecast in sunny and 70 for tomorrow and I still need to get that Jeep from Dan.

The forecast for Saturday is thunderstorms. I’ll plan to ride Saturday.

Run duration: 43 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 725.