Moving Forward...With a Limp

The depression from falling short at the last race was short lived and I was ready to move ahead rather quickly. The short of it was that I was upset about my performance. No need to dwell, or beat myself up about it for a prolonged period of time. I have a beautiful wife, loving and wonderful children, a good job and nothing really to complain about. I lead a pretty darn good life.

I used the week following the race to relax and not have to worry about a running schedule. My legs felt pretty good and I have been formulating the plan for the next goal race. Fortunately, I will not have to go this alone. I will let my coach do a lot of the weekly schedule work and I will do my best to follow orders, which I am not always good at. Paul is flexible and I do my best to get the majority of the workouts in as written. I appreciate the fact that he is willing to add in a race as a training run and work it into my schedule with the end goal in mind.

This past week I was back to the schedule with the emphasis moving back to the trails. The difficult part about this is that the trails aren't exactly convenient. I had a few speed work days that were supposed to be on the trails and back to back mid-long runs, but I was also heading out of town to the beach to relax over spring break. I decided the sand is soft like trails, not nearly as technical, but it would have to do.

I love running on the sand. I headed out on Wednesday with a 6 x 1 mile workout at 6:30 pace on tap. I knew that on the sand there was no way I would be able to hit the splits so I focused on running hard for 6:30 rather than a mile. Another factor blowing me right in the face was the brutal wind. No problem, I'll alternate directions and the wind and the sand would make me tougher in the long run. The run went well and I managed 9 miles in 1:12 with the faster stuff mixed in.

After the run I spotted Jessica and the kids splashing about despite the cold weather and less than clear water. The waves were crashing along the shore and the kids would wade out up to their knees and then run back to the shore as the water came towards them. Tyler was enjoying the game as Jessica and I looked on. We could see an impending wave coming and Tyler was a bit far out. We yelled at him to run back towards us along with the other kids. He almost made it, but the water was moving a bit too fast. Emily got to him just in time, but he took a tumble and brought down Emily with him. Both of them were covered with water and sand, but no major damage was done. Jessica was right there as well to scoop Tyler up and we all headed back to the house only a few blocks away.

The best thing about being at the beach is spending the time with family and relaxing in a way that is difficult to do at home. The girls spent a lot of time in the hot tub, Tyler watched Winnie the Pooh and Rudolph about a dozen times and Jessica and I were able to sleep in and forget about work, bills and all other worries for a few days.

I headed back to the sand again Friday and was forced to run in deeper sand due to the high tide. On the way back I ran on the roads and once again faced the strong winds while trying to mix in some faster shorter bursts along the way.

Saturday my motivation level was low. Eventually, I managed to get out the door for a walk/run with Jessica. The walking was fine, but I noticed a bit of soreness in my left calf. When we began to run I was definitely doing so with a limp. We alternated the run/walk, but after about 3 miles it was all walking and more painful at that. I managed to limp the 3 miles back home and the ache in the left calf was more noticeable as we went.

It's really a minor thing to complain about. The kids are upstairs hanging out with their friends, the sun is out, Jessica will be home soon and there is nothing major pending on the schedule. I lead a pretty good life.

Happy Living!