Blog

Being cautious

I had a good week going. I was on course to my longest running week in a couple years. My 11 miles in Griffith Park on Tuesday went great and I felt good on my easy Wednesday run. Thursday night at the track I had a little twinge in my right achilles but by Friday night I’d pretty much forgotten about it.

Saturday morning I went out to Westridge and ran a pretty tough 27+ miles (4 hours). I ran a slightly different course than I’ve been doing with Rom – instead of going all the way out on Mulholland, I went on the Temescal Fire Road, which is hillier with some single track trails. I walked the bigger hills, which was good practice for the hilly races I have coming up. The only problem with the course is a lack of water. There’s a water fountain about 4 miles in, but after that, nothing. I carried two bottles, but still had to ration my water and even then, ran out about 20 minutes before I got back to the water fountain. That distance felt great, and I’m confident that I can do the marathon and the 50K (even if they’re tougher courses). Getting through 50 miles will still seems really daunting.

Anyway, last night my right achilles was really bothering me. I took some advil and tried stretching and icing it. My plan was to get up this morning and run with the LA Trail Runners Club. I’ve been thinking about running with them for a while, and this week, seemed like a good time for it. But the ache in my achilles put some doubt in my mind. I woke up early this morning and went to the meeting place near Will Rogers State Park. I met some of the people and started towards the trail. Three steps into the run, my achilles told me not to do it. So I turned around and came back home. Dammit.

Instead, I spent the day icing my achilles, doing self-massage on my calf and trying to keep off my feet. (It didn’t hurt that there was a fair amount of good football on TV today – including a nice Chargers win.) It feels better now… I guess. At this point, I really don’t think it’s anything too major, but I am a little scared to test it. Tomorrow’s not a scheduled run day anyway, so the earliest I’ll try is Tuesday. I still had a good week – about 50 miles – but this does dampen my enthusiasm about that number a little bit. Hopefully it’s just a little twinge that needs a day or two of rest.

Fingers crossed!

p.s. Maybe this is a good time to try a short run in the VFFs?

Swim – October 22
Distance: 3,390 yards (3,100 meters)
Time: 1:04

Speedwork – October 22
Total distance: 5.9 miles
Time: 1:00
Main set: 1600, 1200, 800, 400, 6×400

Run – October 24
Distance: 27 miles
Time: 4:01
Average heart rate: Not working
Course: Westridge/Mulholland/Temescal Fire Road
Conditions: Started nice and sorta cool, got sunny and warm (70’s?)