Fri 2/8 - PM just over 50 minutes, Brookline

From Coolidge over to Jamaica Pond and back, with 6 strides on the snow-covered track before heading back. Good news is that I appear to have avoided being sucked into illness, slept much better last night. Not so good news is that the calf didn't respond as well as I would have hoped to yesterday's run, felt swollen all day at work and stiff and smoewhat sore at times during the run. Although it was somewhat better by the end of the run which is mildly encouraging. The continued on and off snow showers have made for less than ideal footing anywhere that hasn't been liberally treated, this includes the pond path. Despite this I ran the lap there as briskly as I can remember, feeling frisky after the lower volume recently and testing the leg as well. Tomorrow remains a trip into terra incognita.

THu 2/7 - PM 60 minutes, Mossman to Longfellow

Run went smoothly, better than expected given that the obnoxious dry scratchy throat made it extremely difficult to sleep (3-4 hours total). Calf held up as well as I could have hoped, still not 100% but definitely better than Tuesday. The day off yesterday was well-timed. Able to do six strides on the way in w/o aggravating the leg either. Running fast around a curve on a track will be another matter entirely, remains to be seen. Roads not the best after a day of snow showers.

Wed 2/6 - off

Chose the better part of valor today. Had an opportunity to get on the treadmill either before or after the kiddies' meet but it would have been a tight squeeze beforehand and a late night waiting until afterwards. Another inch or so of rain fell during the day, nasty conditions to be outside. Calf feeling better by the end of the day, but throat is getting the dry scratchy feeling which is never a welcome thing.

Tue 2/5 - PM just under 70 minutes round trip to TJs

Roughly equal splits on each leg of this evening's grocery run, which meant that the effort was higher on the way back what with the net uphill and extra weight on my back. Calf not really any better or worse than it was yesterday. Running easy not a problem, not that I'm running easy all the time. Hindsight is pretty clear that soldiering through the hard effort on Sunday was a mistake. Still relatively mild outside following heavy rains earlier in the day.

Mon 2/4 - 45 minutes easy, Levittown

Combination of a late start and yesterday's effort kept today's run short and easy. Calf swollen like a balloon during the day at work, very worrisome in fact, but it started to feel better in the late afternoon and the run itself felt better than expected. Still icing it regularly. Relatively mild temps for this time of year.

Sun 2/3 - AM 1:50 incl. 6m in 33:15

Got a bit ahead of myself with the hard effort today, after being able to run easy without major problems the past two days. Warmup was purposefully long, just under an hour all told, to give the calf a chance to loosen up. That was a bit much but I wanted to make sure it was loose. Course was a flat 3 mile loop, first loop went well enough in 16:22 but the second loop muscle fatigue set in and the calf became increasingly sore and the pace slowed as a result to 16:53. As there were no splits and the course was advertised as a 5k loop, I was running on feel the first lap and when I saw the time, I was too fast for what I had planned and so backed off the effort the next mile. In fact the pace was dead-on the first loop, and in the end I didn't have any choice about slowing down the second loop as the calf stiffened up. It was more swollen than painful afterwards, but in hindsight I should have stopped after one loop. Even better hindsight, I should have given this event a pass and gone for another easy run instead.