Soleus Muscles

6 AM-7:30 AM

Run: Level 3-4 for ~10 minutes; Bike: Level 2 for ~40 minutes.
Core work (first!)—column strength all sides, “seal” movement, rev. cr. W.twist.
Dyn wu.; yoga cooldown.

Wanted to do two tempo runs of the 1.6 mile loop around the neighborhood. My goal was to complete both of them in 12:30 each. I did much better than that: my first one I completed in 10:26. Great work! Avg. HR was 148; top was 163 (final sprint push). That was an excellent effort, and if I can (possibly) keep up that pace that will put my 10K at about 42 minutes, which would be terrific—though probably a pretty lofty goal. Maybe go for 45 minutes on my 10K? That would be the 7:30 mile I was shooting for. The pace today was 6:55/mile, a great pace. Definite booster there.

Downside: soleus muscles of both lower legs started hurting about 3/4 of the way through the run, followed by pain during the rest. So, after about 6 minutes of trying to stretch out the pain/cramping, I aborted the second tempo run effort, and went straight to the bike. Did I not warm up long enough? Or was I still sort of in pain from the bike ride on Saturday? (my legs weren’t sore yesterday or today either, though yesterday AM I felt a little of that slightly feverish sensation that comes with kicking my own ass pretty hard. Probably a combo, though it might have been unavoidable. It feels (even now, 2 hours after workout) crampy. Fortunately, tomorrow it’s a swim day. I might have to NOT do any more running this week. I’ve had this before and it takes a couple days to wear off.

Another possible culprit: running on the toes, which I do at higher speeds. The rapid deceleration required by the lower legs in a limited ROM might have been too much for the poor little soleus. New thought: just run through, don’t toe it on purpose.

Anyway: bike ride was good—stuck to the neighborhood, did 8 laps or so, completing the first 7 in 37:32 at an avg hr of 130, max of 144. Again, good—it was a LEVEL II workout. The HR is getting up there on the rides; which I actually think is good…I’m learning to push into the zone effectively.

Definitely a swim on the morrow. Maybe shoot for 2000 yds, no speed pressure? Lots of technique, drills, maybe a few sprints? Mix it up a lot—I want to swim for 50 minutes or so. Who knows what we’ll do on Sat for swim workout; might as well prep well for it. But I don’t want/need to do another mile benchmark this soon after the last one.

Lessons of today: good choice to abort second tempo run; don’t run on toes; ease up when the body tells me.