Five Sweet Miles

Yay! Today's five-mile run at the North St Paul Community Center was pain-free! The naughty Achilles tendon seemed a little stiff in the first third of a mile, but smoothed out for the rest of the run. Even walking downstairs, the acid test, it was entirely pain free. This time I was successful in holding the pace down to nine minutes per mile, actually 44:51 overall for an average pace of 8:58. Close enough. And I resisted the urge to ramp it up for the last mile.

Adam left good suggestions on the previous post: (1) No stretching of the Achilles, and (2) Maybe take a whole week off. He may prove to be right; thank you Adam. I'm sure that THREE weeks off would cure the Achilles - that's what it has taken me in the past to heal a serious tendon injury. It might take less than three weeks for a younger person but, alas, I am at that age where every new day is a gift, and there is no going back. Healing takes longer. I still do calf (Achilles) stretches, but very gently and never to the point of pain; I doubt those stretches do much damage and I hope they will help it to heal correctly. And I have stopped using the Strassburg Sock night splint, which pulls on the Achilles gently enough, but all night long. I used ice and heat (5 minutes, ten minutes, three cycles) after Thursday's iffy five-mile run; that may have helped. I'll do that again today.

Thursday I expected to be able to run five miles pain-free and couldn't. Today I was determined to stop at the FIRST sign of pain, and was pretty sure that I would have to do that, but I didn't. Bottom line: I sure don't know what's going on!

Nevertheless I think I'll go back to running every other day, ramping up slowly. The runs will be on a track, at NSPCC or the Stillwater Bubble, so that I can easily quit at the very first sign of pain. If all goes well, five miles (again) on Monday, then six or seven Wednesday and hopefully more on Friday. Fingers crossed.



Today's post-run breakfast: Organic gluten-free pancake, organic blueberries, kiwi, organic medjool dates, Don's nut/fruit/berry mix, organic maple syrup. This was both breakfast AND lunch.



Last night's dinner: Free-range bison roast, organic sweet potato, organic salsa, organic gluten-free pasta with cheese and a little kale, onions roasted with the bison. Seconds on everything, thank you.