Take it Easy

Vacation from Running

Recently a lot of my runs were beginning to feel like a chore. Having notched up 950 miles in the year, I decided that a change was as good as a rest. So I hung up the runners for a week or two. This gave me some extra time for family activities and some long overdue jobs around the house. It also coincided with my 47th Birthday and 18th Anniversary and sure the rest would do the legs no harm. So how does a runner manage to strain both achilles calves without running even one mile?
He plays footie on a beach with the young fella for 30 minutes with no shoes on. Driving home they felt a bit tight but next morning I had to revert to walking downstairs backwards as forwards just hurt too much. This added another week to the lay up. Anyway back to doing some mileage this week and all seems good with the exception that I have slowed down somewhat, this is probably a weight gain issue but I am just too scared to stand on the scales however the mirror don't lie. I have also rather craftily lined up what promises to The Best Sunday ever or it may turn out to be the worst. More to follow on this later.

Barefoot running

I was really surprised at how little I did barefoot that left my calves/achilles in a condition similar to that of running 26.2 miles in what we call running shoes. I use a support shoe which probably has a 10 to 12 mm raise at the heel. It really brought home to me that I am most likely under utilising my lower leg which in turn is most likely placing a higher load further up the chain. I have done some reading on the web in this regard and I am probably better off running barefoot but the transition involved would need to be very slow, or one would need to go back to the start with a couch to 5K type buildup. If I ever had (touches loads of wood) a serious injury which kept me off running for 3 months or more then I might consider the switch but for now I will stick with my High Heel runners.

August 13th  
          4.1 Miles Easy  37:38 @ 9:06 HR 142

August 14th
       10 Miles Long Recovery 1:37:11 @  9:41 pace, HR 143