Tue 1/10 - PM 35 minutes

Charles River. Another setback, to add to the recent pile of them. Wore thin-soled shoes which was a mistake but didn't seem like that big a deal at the time. Felt pretty spry and snappy for the first few minutes which led to a pace that was too fast which led to another near miss with the calf almost popping. All this within 15 minutes of starting. Picking at the scab isn't a strong enough analogy for what's going on here. Unlike last Thursday or the hill drills eleven days ago, this time I was just running at a steady pace. Had I been wearing the gunboat shoes I'm sure this wouldn't have happened, but something like it eventually would. Indoor track is out of the picture, with my worst fears following the half-marathon in November realized. "Blindsided" and "hindsight" are the two words that keep coming to mind through this whole experience with the fucking calf. At every unhappy accident starting with the original injury I've been unpleasantly surprised at the severity and mere existence of the problem; on further reflection the chain of causation is quite clear. The whole mess started with reading this article and deciding that I should adopt more of a forefoot strike. In other words fixing what wasn't broken. This of course loaded up already tight calves, a week or so later I toe the line in Portsmouth wearing flats, and away we go. Since then just one miscalculation after another.