A Quarter of 20 for Me

Note: I wrote this before the treadmill run post on 111 degree Fahrenheit Monday (in Long Beach). I just didn’t get the opportunity to upload it.

Shall I do my usual 25 mile bike ride, or should I try running? Those questions went through my mind upon waking up Saturday morning. I opted for the second choice. Then I couldn’t decide whether to put heel lifts plus my orthotics in my shoes as prescribed for runners with PTTD or just run in the shoes without extra support. Wearing shoes with the heel lift and orthotics felt awkward so I took them out. On my last post, I was considering whether to keep running on the treadmill until my right calf fully healed. But it was already too warm indoors so I decided to pound the pavement outside instead. While the AREC marathon trainers were out on their last 20 mile run (some did 22) before the Long Beach marathon, I was out clomp, clomp, clomping my way around my neighborhood for an hour of 4 minute jogging with 1 minute walking. It was supposed to be a hot day and indeed it was but I hardly felt it because of my slowness. I didn’t even sweat that much because I didn’t feel perspiration dripping from my brow. Maybe because it was dry heat. Even though I moved like a slug, I felt no need to try picking up the pace. I’m not sure I could have anyway since I’m still trying to recover from the calf injury. It felt like I was running about 11:30 per mile so I was surprised when I checked at the end that my pace was 10:55 (the combination of running and walking).  Along the route, I saw volunteers picking up trash in the neighborhood, God bless them. Then I saw a guy who was running so slowly. He must have thought the same way about me when he saw me slogging along. We gave each other the acknowledgement nod that runners do during these types of encounters. In the end, I completed 12 repetitions of the 4 minute run and 1 minute walk intervals for a total of an hour, covering 5.5 miles. Although I didn’t feel fully endorphinated because I could not push the pace, it felt really good to experience a semblance of running again. All that was left for me to do was pack both ankles and the right calf in ice when I got home. The distance was only over a quarter of what I usually do this time of the year, but it was good enough on this day and I couldn’t ask for more.

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