Fri 2/10 - PM 55 minutes easy

Area 51. Took forever to get out the door after doing a lot of food shopping on the way home from work. Feeling completely frazzled from the week, long days at work schlepping laptop computers back and forth. Not a lot of motivation needless to say, happy to get anything done at all. More importantly the left calf responded better than expected to the stress of yesterday's effort. In fact I didn't notice any tightness at all with the gastroc until the run was half over. The left ankle is stiff and sore near the talus, seems like the issue has migrated to a different location. Strange but much more tolerable than what I've been dealing with the last six weeks. Mild temps but with a fairly stiff wind all afternoon.

Thu 2/9 - PM 75 minutes incl. 5(400,800)

Felt compelled to try some form of organized faster running, calf spasm be damned. I figured it had improved sufficiently to handle a threshold-style workout. Originally planned to do this at Emerson field but ended up using Wellesley College track instead, a better choice given the wide sweeping turns. No idea of what type of pace to shoot for, trying to maintain a consistent effort and let the chips fall where they may. 200m jog after each rep ensured whatever unimpressive level of fitness I'm at asserted itself. Changed direction after each set as well. The upset was that the calf held up fine to the workout even though it felt tight on the warmup. The limiting factor was instead a lack of fitness which made this more of a slog than my ego would like, even given that I was running in clunkier shoes than normal for this type of thing. Recovery times evidence of this, creeping up from just under a minute to 65 seconds or so by the end.

Splits:
81.8 (55) 2:50 (57)

81.7 (57) 2:48.2 (63)

80.8 (59) 2:47.9 (66)

83.0 (62) 2:49.8 (65) a bit pooped from the previous set, backed it off this one

81.8 (65) 3:31.6 (tacked on an extra heroic 200)

total time 30:46 for 8k worth of running

some wind on the home straight but it died down with sunset. Sadly, I was just as wiped out after this modest effort as I've been after much more impressive workouts from as recently as December. 

Wed 2/8 - PM 60 minutes easy

GMNWR. Decided it was high time to change the venue and duration of the day's run, not that the trails in the woods aren't edifying. Went with the gunboat shoes as well, thinking that the extra heel lift would take some of the strain off the calf. This was true more or less, although the frozen ruts on the reformatory branch trail caused some wobbling which tweaked it a bit. Overall very relaxed run, pace increased a bit near the end but not by much. More or less on a lark, decided to try a modest set of drills and strides, at no more than 70% effort, which went off without incident. As ever, the legs felt better for it. Dreary overcast day, colder than the past two days but no wind to speak of.

Tue 2/7 - PM 75 minutes

Lincoln woods. Calf feeling better today than yesterday, although the knot in the lateral gastroc head is there for the long haul. Afterward I did a set of step-ups as a test of the muscle's integrity and it wasn't able to handle it, as I figured. Continuing the binary nature of each day's run since last Friday, today was faster paced overall. The last 15 minutes were at or near threshold. Slightly cooler today than yesterday, but not enough to justify the amount of clothing I wore.

Mon 2/6 - PM 75 minutes easy

Lincoln woods. Paying for yesterday's end of run hammerfest, low energy and left calf a tight knot the entire way. Went up around the horse paddock, not exactly the flattest route to pick although there are no truly flat paths anyway. Things perked up just a bit in the last 10 minutes, smelling the barn door strictly, but given how stiff the calf was feeling I was careful not to overdo it. Temp got up to the high 40s by midafternoon, SW winds at it again.

Sun 2/5 - PM 80 minutes

Walden woods. Yesterday's recovery run enabled me to push the pace today, although only after the calf had loosened up which took about half an hour. In fact it was stiff enough early on that I thought easy jogging was all I'd be able to handle. By the last 10 minutes I was at or near threshold pace. It's definitely getting better again, recovering from the most recent in a long string of indignities I've heaped upon it. I'm hopeful it will continue to progress.

Sat 2/4 - AM 95 minutes easy

Round trip to Brues woods, with an hour break spent tromping around in the woods. Much slower pace than the same run six days ago. Felt tired and flat from the get-go, also I didn't want a repeat of the calf aggravation so I was inclined to take it easy and keep it there. Calf tight pretty much throughout but felt better after post-run massage work. Clear and windy again.