Meg and I ran again on Saturday, the same course as before, but reversed. I'm sure it is more than 3.5 miles. Aerobically I felt good most of the way, but I had noticed that my calves have really tightened up, so I did an unusual thing: I stretched a little before I ran. After about three miles one of my calves was really tightening up. I ended up walking the last 1/4 mi+.
I'm not blaming it on the stretching. Conventional wisdom for runners says you should increase mileage by only 10%/week. I put mine up by around 30%, and increased the intensity during the same week.
The calf feels good today. I may be able to get through this just by dropping the mileage back naturally (because I'm not on vacation any more).
I'm considering that I may have to initiate some of the things that mature runners do, like regular stretching and strength training. I hate to consider it, but I don't want to spend the summer with a nagging tightness, or go down with an injury.
I'm not blaming it on the stretching. Conventional wisdom for runners says you should increase mileage by only 10%/week. I put mine up by around 30%, and increased the intensity during the same week.
The calf feels good today. I may be able to get through this just by dropping the mileage back naturally (because I'm not on vacation any more).
I'm considering that I may have to initiate some of the things that mature runners do, like regular stretching and strength training. I hate to consider it, but I don't want to spend the summer with a nagging tightness, or go down with an injury.
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I have registered for the Mother's Day race and am hoping to bust a decent time (sub 21:00)
I'm starting to suspect bike riding as a contributing cause, because I had been for kind of a long, if leisurely, ride the day before, and of course, I rode quite a bit the last two summers.