Ouch...

Friday, April 9, 2010


It was another cool day and I was starting to feel like I could run every day…any day. It was a riding day, but the roads were wet and it was way too cold for this freeze baby to ride, regardless, so…to the park for a short run.

I was thinking 30 minutes would be good and I’d hammer on the bike for over two hours tomorrow. I started off slowly, splashing along on the sloppy bridle trails. I was about 8 minutes into the run when I stopped to try and identify a bird call I’d been hearing. I couldn’t locate the little bugger and when I started up again, felt a twinge in the calf. I stopped immediately. Damn. Four days in a row was too many. How bad was it though?

I walked about a hundred yards and began to jog again. No pain. Still, I was going to be cautious. I knew I was walking on very thin ice at this point. I decided I’d be happy with 20 minutes of running – the minimum I’d set for myself for a day to count as an aerobic workout when I began the blog. I finished the 20 minutes gingerly and figured no running for a couple of days. This thing needed a little rest.

Later that night while walking around the house, I noticed that my Achilles tendon was sore. It’s another common overuse injury/pain I’ve suffered over the years, but one I’d totally forgotten about since I’ve been no where close to running overuse in ten years. The pain was just below the calf and not a good sign.

So…I’ve been talking about the body’s need for rest and how I’ve chosen to ignore it. I’ve been mixing things up in hopes that I’d avoid overuse injuries, but the recent constancy of running has taken its toll. Back to more mixing it up. I think I’ll get that kayak on the water and do some hiking with the pack while the inflammation goes down. Besides – it’s my birthday week coming up and that’s a good reason to go easy. That…and I need to be ready to pound a week from tomorrow.

Run duration: 20 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140

Calories burned during workout: 340