So saturday was the big day – time to head out and put some pounding to the pavement and see how my calf was. I started the morning by running out and picking up some more KT Tape (I was out) and got an awesome purple color. (My wife keeps asking why I don’t get the skin colored. I have no answer.) History has shown that it is effective in helping my calf – and I wanted every edge I could get. Then I decided to head out as I had someone at the house to watch the kids.
It felt mah-velous. It hurt like the dickens – apparently riding a 10 speed does not come near the difficulty of running (I was always riding around in max gear.) Or maybe a runner needs to look harder for hills when on a bicycle. But either way it was GREAT to be out there. I did wear my ASICS, as I have decided that I will be doing no running in my VFFs until after the marathon as I wish to minimize the chances of another calf pull. As I ran I concentrated on making sure my heel was hitting the ground, although I was sticking with more off an “entire foot” than a heel-strike. Then I would concentrate on NOT pushing off with my calf. You would think that after years of not using my calf much in running, that it would be natural to drop back into that style.. But apparently I have adapted to the VFFs to quickly! Luckily the heel rise made it easier to make sure my heel hit.
When I set out – I logically knew I should only do about 2 miles, so I decided on 3. As I hit my turn around spot – there was a car accident up ahead, so of course I had to run by that. Then I couldn’t turn around right there – so I had to go a bit further and turn down a side street. I ended up at 3.8 miles for the day. My calf didn’t “snap” or cause me pain, but I could feel that it was one tired muscle.
I then headed up to my father’s house – he had a large amount of stone to be moved from the front yard, up the driveway (uphill of course) and turned into a stonewall in the back. As we got started I suddenly realized – Boy it was stupid to go run 3.8 miles before doing this. Pushing the wheel barrow up the hill was NOT my tired muscles’ favorite activity. We did get the rocks in the back, with only one injury (my brother.)
Needless to say, the day after that (yesterday) I HURT. But I feel better today and I am definitely looking forward to my run tonight! Probably only 3 miles – but still looking forward to putting some more mileage in!
I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.
Once and Future Runner 
Leave a Reply