Make it stop!

Dear legs - particularly calves,

PLEASE STOP BEING WEIRD.  Seriously.

Thanks,

Corinne

Sooooo my calves have been giving me issues almost non-stop since I hopped back on the training bandwagon.  The first two miles are torture.  Usually my left calf is fine after about a quarter of a mile, sometimes more.  But the right one?  It hates me.  That one takes about 2 miles to finally loosen enough that I can comfortably run. 

 Disclaimer - those are not my legs.  I'm not that hairy.

Each week my times have gotten progressively slower on my longer runs as my right calf continues to give me grief, and this past Saturday was no exception.  I felt defeated with that 13:58 average.  Yeah sure it's still a minute faster than high school but I still felt (and feel) terrible about it.  I didn't enjoy that 8-miler.  I was hoping that Monday would be a return to normalcy, with the first two miles being more walking than running and the last two miles being at a good near-tempo.  But oooooh no no NO my right calf had other things in mind.  My splits were awful.  I was nearly one and a half minutes slower than I was during my long run two days before!

Was I over-thinking things?  Stressed out to the point that exercise just was not going to help me at all?  I have no clue.  But I came home after that run and cried.  I was so disappointed in myself.  Normally I have the mentality "A 14-minute mile is the same as a 7-minute mile, all that matters is that you did it!" but I just couldn't get myself to believe that mantra on Monday.  That calf is just causing me so much grief!

I think part of it may be not enough stretching before and after runs.  My right left definitely felt tighter than my left on Monday, which makes sense since that's my dominant side/leg.  I've been looking up all sorts of calf stretches and exercises and am going to try to make it to the gym for vinyasa yoga classes.  I'm looking to set a real PR on October 19th!  I've got six weeks to figure something out.

More training recaps!

I may have to start setting reminders about posting so that I don't forget all the little random thoughts I have!

Monday 8/25 - Four miles.  It was in the high 90s with 100% humidity so I chose to take this one inside at my gym.  I go home for lunch every single day and grabbed everything I would need....except for my running shoes.  I ended up doing 4 miles at a decent pace for me (13:15/mile) on a treadmill in the totally wrong shoes.  My feet hated me!

Wednesday 8/27 - Hill sprints for one mile.  Pretty sure I did not do a full mile.  I had a volleyball game at 7:15 that kind of messed up everything and ended up doing these in front of my gym, where there is a huge hill that's just a monster to climb.  I only ran about 1/4 of the way up the hill because it goes on FOREVER.

Saturday 8/30 - Seven miles.  The weather was slightly cooler than it had been on previous long runs but it was still toasty.  My calves did their usual "hahahaha, you think you're gonna move faster than a snail?!" for the first two miles.  Once I got the kinks worked out and finally got moving, this went better.  Still in the slow poke range but it was officially the farthest I have ever run while training.

Monday 9/1 - 3.5 miles in some really hazy, humid weather.  I decided to try a new route since I had the day off and drove up north about half an hour to start at Olentangy Parklands (plus I could swing by Road Runner on my way back home!).  I used to ride my bike on this trail as a kid and LOVED IT because it was super close to my house.  As an adult, on Labor Day, I was laboring!  Those little bitty hills that take you ten steps to go up?  NO FUN.  But hey I got some salted caramel GU afterwards.

Wednesday 9/3 - Hills for five miles. Again, volleyball game kind of got in the way.  Game was at 9:15.  I have to run Friday AND Saturday this week.  Sooooo I chose to go to Antrim Park (2.75 miles south of Olentangy Parklands) before volleyball.  I was supposed to do one mile easy, two miles uphill, and two miles downhill.  I live in Columbus where such hills don't really exist so I just did five miles that was a nice mixture of up and down.  My legs are feeling it today!  Mostly successful run, but again, those first two miles were nearly the death of me.

I need to figure out what the heck is up with my calves for those first two miles.  EVERY SINGLE RUN starts off like that.  It slows me down immensely.  I end up walking probably 75% of those first couple miles and it just saddens me.  Once the tightness is gone, it's great!  I gain speed and feel good and rarely add walk breaks!  It's just depressing to be SO EXCITED to run and then almost immediately be saying "What have I gotten myself into?!"  I've tried dynamic stretches, compression sleeves (which tend to make it worse sadly), and strengthening exercises while at work but it's not helping.  Next on my list of tricks to try is The Stick.  I got mine a week ago and I'm smitten.  Hoping that helps.  Taking a Good Form Running clinic at FrontRunner in Upper Arlington after work today so also think that may help.  I'll definitely be asking the awesome employees there for any tips and tricks.