Trying to Go Faster Again

For a change of pace, literally I tried to change the pace a little bit tonight. This calf strain that sidelined me for a bit put a real damper on my training and I've been really stuck in a rut as a result. It's one of those things that makes one feel like running at a pace that doesn't resemble "jogging" is an unattainable dream...

After work we took the boys swimming at this nice outdoor pool that we've been to almost daily since we discovered it was open on the weekend. My little guys are a little afraid of the water (and as former competitive swimmers, both my wife and I have no clue how to teach non-swimmers how to get over it) so we just try and get them to have fun in and around the water. To my great delight they've both made great strides in the past few days, and so are we are all very enthusiastic about swimming. Anyway, after that my wife was kind enough to take the boys home and start dinner while I headed out for my run.

I am still feeling a bit weak in the right calf, but thought that after a bit of a warm up it would be good to do a few faster kilometres. Nothing approaching interval speed, but rather just some pace to get the heart pounding a little bit. It was hot and humid, and so I felt that the calf would be as warm as possible, thereby minimizing the chance of another cramp.

I ran the first two kilometres nice and slow and they felt good. I then decided to alternate faster kilometres with slow recovery splits. My first split of the faster variety was a bit quicker than I'd anticipated it would be at 4:24 (7:05/mile pace). I then ran a slow click, and then got into my second fast split. This time it was a bit harder and the calf was really feeling weak. I guess I babied it a bit and ran the kilometre in 4:31 (7:17/mile pace). This brought me to the hill leading out of the valley up Beachwood Avenue and I decided to run two slow kilometres since the hill was going to take a toll on the calf and I figured a bit more recovery was warranted. I then ran the third fast kilometre in 4:25 (7:07/mile pace). By this point I was really quite drained and sweating like never before. (I do not generally sweat very much, so when I do it comes as a bit of a surprise.)

In the end I ran a total of 10km in 54:35.98 for an average pace of 5:27/km (8:47/mile). The calf is alright, but we'll see if there are any adverse effects tomorrow. Here's hoping that it's all good and I can get back to training properly again. It was fun to just run a bit after all the jogging I've been doing. I realize that I like running, but hate jogging. Just seems pointless in so many ways...

Garmin don't lie.