Fri 11/25 - double, 70 minutes very easy

AM - 55 minutes very easy, Area 51. Really, really rickety this morning. Kept it relaxed of course, calf still a mess of course. Right hammie pegged as well, something I noticed warming up yesterday. The beast goes on I guess. Chilly at the start, but warming up rapidly as the sun came up.

PM - 15 minute shakeout jog at Bowdoin Park after 3+ lovely hours in the van with the Wild Kittens. Legs felt like garbage. Very warm day.

Thu 11/24 - AM 70 minutes incl. 5k road race

Not an especially pleasant experience, although any major health disaster with the calf was averted. Too early start time (with attendant freezing temps) combined with no caffeine only added to the fun. Given a choice I would have given anything resembling a race a wide berth with the condition of the calf still not close to right, but I had 150 reasons to show up. Still, there was no need or reason to go any faster than a canter. As ever, foolish pride took over after an incredibly awkward start stepping gingerly off the line. Reeled in various morning glories and weekend warriors until I reached my level, which was a depressingly slow 5:40 pace or so. Duked it out with two of the hoi polloi for the all important age group win (in hindsight, worth absolutely nothing) including something resembling an actual sprint the last 100m or so. Still not sure how I pulled that off without straining the calf massively. It of course proceeded to to stiffen up as soon as I was through the chute. Very slow 30 minute cooldown on the rail trail (its proximity for warmup and cooldown being the best thing about the location of this race). Surely set things back yet again with this, hopefully the overall trend remains oriented toward recovery though.

Wed 11/23 - PM 45 minutes

Quick hitter relatively speaking. Very tired after getting home from work, nap was too long as a result. Going pretty well on the whole, calf still not close to being right so still forced to hold back on the pace.

Tue 11/22 - PM 70 minutes

Area 51. Different route than last night, generally a bit quicker as well. Calf was feeling better from the start so of course I got greedy and pushed the pace just enough to tweak it. Backed off before doing any major damage. Not as cold as yesterday, rain on the way.

Mon 11/21 - PM 70 minutes

Area 51. Moving much quicker than yesterday, with less pain and stiffness. After feeling like utter crap all day at work, mainly because of all the time spent sitting with my knee and ankle flexed, calf loosened up once I was able to do a bit of walking around in the afternoon. Of course, got a little greedy 2/3 of the way through and picked up the pace just enough to cause the soleus to stiffen up a bit, had to back off from that point on. Chilly and windy conditions.

Sun 11/20 - PM 70 minutes very easy

GMNWR and Concord center. If anything the calf felt worse than it did at the end of yesterday's run upon waking up this morning. Back to compressions and icing but to no avail thus far. Unable to do anything more than jog very lightly and gingerly on it, even that's probably too much of course. Blindsided is a fair description of my state of mind, tripping over a fucking branch shouldn't have resulted in this. To say nothing of how the hell it got strained in the first place last weekend--one minute I'm chugging along at a crappy slow pace in the half marathon, the next I'm limping on one leg. WTF indeed. Unseasonably warm day.

Sat 11/19 - PM 85 minutes

Track Road to Area 51 via Sudbury Road. Reaggravated left calf after tripping on a fallen tree limb that I didn't pick up with the headlamp. Took a few minutes for the full effect to sink in but one ill-advised quasi-surge about 10 minutes later made it abundantly clear that the whole fucking thing was back in spasm. Shuffled it in from there, extremely frustrating to say the least. Even putting aside the freak nature of the precipitating incident, it certainly looks like I had overestimated the degree to which I had recovered. Feels like almost back to square one when I thought the worst was already behind me. Not even close.

Fri 11/18 - PM 80 minutes easy

Out and back to TJs, first time doing this in a good long while. Pace picked up gradually on the way back, esp. the last little bit once back in Maynard. No issues from calf, not doing anything to stress it unduly of course. Hammies got tight again, felt better after post-run compressions. Temperature dropped with the sunset, wind persisted.