13 January 2015
Today was cool and overcast; the forecast high temperature for today was 45°F, but it was only 41°F when I left home to go run. After a few minutes, I was not feeling the cool air at all and was enjoying the run. A couple of days rest made a real difference in the freshness of my legs.
Even from the beginning of today’s session, the only things on which I was focused were my running cadence and enjoying the run…except the Hilltop Ridge steep grade, I wasn’t enjoying the hill!
Endurance Running – Week 9 of 13 Weeks, Day 1 of 4 Days
The run was going well through Mile 2 of the training run (Mile 3, including the 1 mi WU); but, soon afterward, my right calf began to tighten (from experience, I knew that to be a precursor to a major cramp) and by the time I had passed Mile 3 (training run), the calf began to cramp, even though I had consciously slowed my pace and, not consciously, my cadence had slowed by nearly 15 spm (steps per minutes) [>7% reduction].
As soon as I realized that my cadence had dropped, I also realized that my running form seemed to have reverted to the form from which I have been trying to leave behind (a poor, overstriding, slower cadence, running form). I really had to fully concentrate upon my good running form for about the next 1/2 mile or more; but, within about 1.5-2 miles, I was rewarded with the pain in my cramping calf muscles subsiding; so, for the rest of today’s training session and KD, I focused upon my running form–nothing else, just my running form. Analysis of today’s running data, shows that my cadence had, fairly well, returned to pre-cramping levels and, I am surprised to see, that my overall pace from that point forward was faster. Faster than I realized, since I had tried to maintain the same perceived effort throughout today’s session.
When I returned home, I used a foam roller on my calf muscles of both legs. They were both tight and painful to the foam roller; but, I continued rolling them for about 5 minutes. Tonight, about 5-6 hours later, my right calf is painful (result of cramping) and my left calf is not. Tomorrow will be a rest day; so, I’ll be using the foam roller, stretching, and ice tomorrow; but, tonight, it’ll be ibuprofen before bedtime. I hope to avoid a calf injury and miss training. [Last April (2014), I had severe calf muscle cramps, couldn’t run for several weeks, and wasn’t able, even, to begin very light, short, easy pace (i.e., slow) running for six weeks.]
If, on Thursday (15 Jan 2015), I’m not able to run my scheduled easy pace session, I may have to search for a registered massage therapist (or a physical therapist) to release (i.e., to massage) the cramping in my calf muscles.
Happy Running!!!