Fri 4/5 - AM 55 minutes easy

Again out and back along the waterfront, heading out in the opposite direction this time. More stiffness in the right popliteal/calf area before a much-needed stretching break before turning around and heading back. Made a point to do more stretching at the end, since I know it won't happen later on in the day. Chilly even without the building breeze.

Thu 4/5 - PM 35 minutes easy

out and back along the waterfront in TO. Windswept as usual, still not nearly as bad as it was in Greater Boston on Tuesday. Much like Wednesday, right calf/popliteal area was tight as a drum and didn't loosen up much until I did some stretching at the turnaround point. Certainly, I'm well past the point of the fucked up right leg being the new normal. Feels like it may end up being permanent.

Wed 4/3 - PM 70 minutes easy

Area 51. Not quite as cold and supposedly not quite as windy as it was yesterday, but I had trouble telling the difference. After yesterday's workout, the locus of awkwardness and discomfort in the right leg has shifted somewhat, more in the calf and popliteal region than the high hamstring. Frighteningly stiff for the first half of the run until I stopped at the fishing pier on Puffer Pond for a stretching break. Felt much better after that thankfully, suggesting that what ails me there is to some extent reversible. Still dealing with underlying weakness and vulnerability in the right calf, the gift that keeps on giving.

Tue 4/2 - PM 60 minutes incl. 6x1000, 6x200

Very windy day, and that's an understatement. The wind came blasting in behind the cold front that passed through yesterday/early this morning. Around 20 mph all day with gusts stronger than that. Not especially warm temps either, with the wind chill it felt more like late February than early April. Did the workout in tights and double layered up top, a first for this time of year as far as I can remember. I had originally planned on doing a different track session with most of it being repeat 400s but with the wind on top of feeling flat and having the tight right calf, that idea went by the boards. Decided to reorient the focus towards LT work and do kms and 200s in order to do the majority of the hard yards with the wind at my back. Hoping the 200s would be like glorified strides. Still a chore of course, got crushed on every backstraight during the 1000s. After the first rep I wasn't bothering to check the watch for splits, trying to run on feel and it felt pretty haggard by the last one. Calf stiffening up in a knot, with hamstring twinging as well.

3:32.2/58
3:30.9/57
3:31.0/61.5
3:31.1/59.8
3:30.7/61.2
3:29.0

Who knows that the splits would have been in more humane conditions but at least a few seconds faster I'd hope. After a 6 minute break, most of which spent doing compressions on the hamstring which was very necessary, finished with 200s. Like the kms, recovery was a 200 jog in around a minute. The first, second, fourth and fifth all went in around 36.7-36.9. For whatever reason the third and sixth were 37.5 apiece. No headwind to blame for the overall pedestrian pace, the turnover simply isn't there. Not helped by ongoing issues with the right leg, can't exert the kind of force I can with the left. Didn't occur to me until writing this up that I could have intermingled the 1000s and 200s like I did in the fall. For whatever reason I like the structure of that session more than this.

Mon 4/1 - PM 75 minutes easy

Lincoln woods. A pleasure to be on the trails despite the arrival of obnoxious rain showers borne on blustery winds that lasted the first 30 minutes of the run. Tired after sleeping poorly last night thanks to the nap yesterday afternoon, this and continued stiffness in the right calf kept the pace slow. Not to mention the undulations of the terrain, I couldn't help noticing that the up and down on soft ground felt more taxing than the more flat paved loops I've been running over the winter. Short pickups on the way in, but calf tightness kept them from being too vigorous.

Sun 3/31 - double, 1:45 total

AM - 40 minutes very easy, outskirts of Area 51. Maybe a bit better than I expected after yesterday's run. While jogging easy, little issue with the hamstring but any speed quicker than that and I can feel the tug up high. Plenty of rolling on various devices afterward. The part of the patrol road I covered is still relatively covered in the white stuff, while not a long stretch it was annoying nonetheless. Warming up nicely as the morning progressed.

PM - 65 minutes, Track Road to Area 51. Took a fairly long nap in the late afternoon, resulted in a later start than I'd planned for the back half of the double. Pokey at the outset but the pace increased near the end more than I'd expected. Mostly clear footing after another warm sunny day.

Sart 3/30 - AM 70 minutes incl. 12k threshold run

Longfellow loop. Addressing an ongoing and deep-seated feeling that this type of work has been missing and is required if any kind of fitness is to be established for the upcoming racing season. Right calf and hammie continue to create a situation where everything faster than a slow jog feels awkward and clumsy/clunky. Holding pattern with that continues, not getting any better or worse that I can tell. On top of that, there was the usual early spring breeze blowing from the NW, aligned such that the second half of each loop was more of a chore than the first. Splits reflect this:

5:52.4/5:59.9/2:52.7
5:53.8/5:58.5/2:54.5
5:50.7/5:55.7/2:48.7

Hoping to progress the pace more than what ended up happening. The effort required on the final loop was also more than what I would have liked. Some of that is cumulative of course. Oveerall between the leg and the wind it was something of a chore. Hamstring stiffened up somewhat the second half but not as badly as I feared it might. Calf and tib anterior very tight by the end though.