Tuesday's Tortured Tendons

I watched Christina for an hour or so this morning and then headed into work. I got situated and fired off the usual emails.

Around 11am Chris pinged me asking if I was planning to run. We decided to do hill repeats at 11:30. It was windy and cool and neither of us were pleased with the idea of running uphill against a strong headwind.

As we ran from the gym and down Hacienda at a moderate pace, my Achille's bothered me. I couldn't stretch it away so I just tried to adjust my stride and warm up. Suddenly, I felt the urge to pitstop at the Chili's restroom. Chris ran ahead and I took care of business.

The pitstop took longer than expected because there was a line, so I had to run fast to catch up with Chris. Running up Stoneridge was miserable. Usually I consider the wind a nonfactor but this time it was so strong it slowed me down. I made it over the freeway with some building pain in my Achille's and hip flexor turned onto Springdale towards Muirwood.

Once I got to Muirwood, I saw Chris coming down the road. He had gone up to Foothill and down the road. We made our way over to Las Positas for hill repeats. Because of my Achille's, I really didn't think I'd be able to get much done once we were there but after we did the first run up Las Positas it actually felt better.

We did another and then headed across Foothill to Stoneridge for another hill before switching to "autopilot" and shuffling back to homebase. There were a couple of time we had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid cars pulling out of parking lots and at one point I even saw my St. Raymond's buddy Yonson grabbing lunch. This made me think about lunch and run back faster until I realized I was not being a good running buddy to Chris.

Back in the office, I realized the 5K assessment probably required more stretching and some ice. My Achille's and hip flexor will need to be stretched and well-rested for the next 2 days so I'll be cross-training on the stationary bike.

Business: Ran outside 8 miles in 59:58 @ avg. 7:30min/mile pace.
Splits are as follows:
Mile  1: 7:37 (0:07:37)
Mile  2: 7:27 (0:15:05)
Mile  3: 7:15 (0:22:19)
Mile  4: 7:04 (0:29:23)
Mile  5: 7:26 (0:36:49)
Mile  6: 7:43 (0:44:32)
Mile  7: 7:41 (0:52:13)
Mile  8: 7:45 (0:59:58)

Gut-check
Breakfast: Bowl of oat cereal, 2% milk, 2 6oz. Yoplait yogurts.
Lunch: 2 ham & cheese sandwiches, Sierra Mist soda, Snickers, water.
Dinner: Pasta w/ red sauce, sourdough bread, 2% milk.

Run. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

=RUMBLE