Monday - 0 miles
Calf doesn't feel awful but rest can only help it. I've been reading that achilles trouble can often be triggered by a large increase in hill workouts. I think that may have been the culprit as I followed up the Big River sufferfest a few weeks back with two pretty tough hill workouts, including my now infamous "House Loops." I'm pretty sure the House Loops were the trigger for my current ailment. Introducing two pairs of minimalist shoes into my arsenal probably didn't help either (I only ran 3 miles in each of 'em but still.)I'm going to lay off the running until this weekend (probably) and keep up with the stretching and foam rollin'. Even though it's just an internet contest I'm disappointed that I won't be hitting 125 miles for the month on Strava. So it goes.
Tuesday - 0 miles
P90X Chest & Back (60 minutes)Wednesday - 0 miles
P90X Yoga X (60 minutes)It's 10 AM and I'm really starting to feel the soreness from yesterday's Chest & Back routine. It's a great workout - all push-ups and pull-ups. By tonight my upper body will feel like cement. But in a good way. I had a great Yoga workout this morning. I really tried to focus and hang low in all the moves. I can feel a little twingling (new word?) in my calf as I sit at my desk but it doesn't bother me as I'm walking around or doing these P90X routines. My plan is to do another strength workout tomorrow and then hit the roads on Friday.
Thursday - 0 miles
P90X Shoulders & Arms (60 minutes)First time doing this routine. It wasn't too bad but I probably didn't use enough weight for some of the moves. I'm not really into curls and other upper body exercises so I can't say that this was one of my favorite workouts but strengthing the shoulders should help with my pull-ups/push-ups so I'll try to do this workout every once and a while. I'm looking forward to getting a run in tomorrow morning.
Friday - Smithfield, RI - 5.8 miles
It was finally time to hit the trails again. I drove up to work early and hit up the many trails behind Fidelity. I took it slow as the terrain was rocky and the ruts from the dirt bike tracks were frozen solid. No issues from the calf which was encouraging. I followed some of my favorite trails and even discovered a new one that was a lot of fun. The video from Muddy's blog made me feel very fortunate to be out there. The little streams were frozen over and I could still see water and bubbles flowing underneath the ice. I thought of all the sad sacks already in the office and I was very pleased to be out there.Looking forward to a big group run tomorrow morning near my house.
Saturday - Charlestown, RI - 15.6 miles
A bunch of folks were doing a run of the DuVal trail this morning but they were keeping it short in anticipation of the Super 5k tomorrow. Since I wasn't running the race, I opted to run to and from DuVal in order to make it a long run. It was cold starting out at 5:45 AM but I warmed up soon enough and it got lighter as I ran the roads to Perryville. Met up with a whole lotta WTAC folks as well as Aaron Rome and his friendly dog.We followed the DuVal trail at an pace and then took the Sand Plains Trail over to Gravelly Hill Rd. The Fullers were looking to run longer so while everyone else headed back to DuVal, I took them over to run the Browning trail. After running it once, they decided to run it another time and I opted to head back to the roads and homeward. A fun run all around and the calf didn't give me any trouble which was great.