Weekly Rundown- SIGH!
Oh, hi there! Thanks for stopping by for the Weekly Rundown, hosted as alway by Kim and Deborah (thanks, ladies!) My week had some ups and downs… when we left off last week I was nursing a weird calf “situation.” I still hesitate to call it an injury, because there’s nowhere on the muscle that I can touch or push on that feels injured. It’s just a generalized painful pulling sensation. I spent all of the previous week walking and pool running to give it a rest. Let’s just see how this week went! Sunday After a whole week off of running, it was time to test the calf! I started off with walking a mile, and then ran 2 miles- and my calf felt PERFECT. Hooray!!! Monday I did a full body strength workout from Sally McRae’s app. Speaking of Sally McRae, she had a VERY rough time out at Western States on Saturday- she was vomiting and couldn’t take in any fuel for the last 40 miles of the race BUT SHE FINISHED ANYWAY. I can’t wait to hear the race recap on her podcast- it should be a good one. Tuesday Since my calf is obviously all better, I headed out for 4 miles. I walked the first mile, then set out to run 3. All was well until, about 2 miles into the run I felt my calf again, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Once it again it was a painful pulling sensation- not as bad as it was before, but definitely there. I finished the 3 miles of running, but it was discouraging. After the run I did my plank routine, which includes reverse and side planks. Sigh. Wednesday Leg day at the gym! I did a 10 minute warmup on the stairclimber, then did my usual routine, which now consists of some moves from Sally McRae’s “Bulletproof Runner” workout, squats, Runner’s Touch,, and side planks with leg lifts. Thursday To give my calf an extra day off running, I started the day with a 3 mile walk. I averaged a 13:49 mile pace AND set a new mile walking PR of 13:37!!! Woohoo! If this keeps up, soon I’ll be walking faster than I’m running, ha ha! (Wait- that’s not funny.) Later, my son and I went to the gym for what he called a “brutal pull day.” When I asked him why it had to be “brutal,” he just looked at me blankly and said “Well otherwise, what’s the point?” Yep, it was brutal! We did lat pulldowns, rows, reverse flys, and biceps- working each muscle group to failure. Ouch. Friday Okay, let’s try this again. 1 mile walk and 3 miles of running. Again, my calf felt absolutely fine during the walk and for the first mile or so of the run- then I started to feel that pulling. It’s in a different place now- it used to start around my achilles and move up, now it starts up around the back of my knee and moves down. Well- different is good… I guess? I wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t finish the run, but it wasn’t good either. I followed this up with my planks again. And again, I can’t explain why I’ve gone off the deadbugs- I didn’t do them once this week! I just needed to switch things up. Saturday Off! And lots and lots of foam rolling. I don’t know what’s going on with my calf, but it just FEELS like something that could be rolled out. I’ve also been using a little spiky ball to (hopefully) release the fascia. SIGH. Sunday On tap- another run! Why not? Resting the calf didn’t fix it, so I might as well continue to run. I’m going to play around with some run/walk intervals and see if that helps. How was your week? Did you celebrate the 4th? – I apparently celebrated with a “brutal” gym day. What do you like better- planks or deadbugs? Or neither one? Top photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash