Saturday, 11/22/08

Today I ran 7 miles in 1:03:15.

I would call this run a dark cloud with a small silver lining. In general, this run was terrible for no good reason. I was somewhat rested, I had been feeling fine all day, everything was normal. I began the run feeling great, and even had perfect running weather. But then, about a mile into the run, my calves just tightened up like crazy, and my left foot started hurting. You may remember that I rolled my left foot on some jerk's garden hose two nights ago, and the pain has not completely gone away. Well, it started acting up as soon as my calves got tight, and forced me to stop a mile and a half in and tie my shoes tighter and massage my calves.

Well, the first time I stopped, my foot felt better but my calves were worse. I had to stop again to massage my calves more thoroughly, and at that point, I was sweating heavily (in pretty cold temperature) and the sweat got into my eyes, which was not fun. So for 3 miles of this run, I was absolutely miserable, not to mention aggravated as it seemed like every time I got to an intersection, there was a car doing something strange or crossing just as I was (at the last mile, there was even police activity a street down from where I was running!).

Then, with 4 miles to go, I just decided to grit my teeth and go for it. I gave up caring about the pain and just ran, and to my great surprise, my body let me do just that. I was able to run without stopping the rest of the way, and in fact, I got stronger the longer I ran. However, when I finished and walked inside, I felt extremely out of it, and actually felt a little dizzy during my post-run shower. I feel better now, but it's the most out of it I've felt so far during this marathon training.

I don't know what it is about stepback weeks, but the long runs don't agree with me. This was just weirdly awful, but the last part was great. I have two blessed days off from running now, though, and I'm going to rest and recover and maybe do some light yoga. See y'all next week!