Two Good Long Runs, Then Pulling Up Injured

I was all set to write about my last 3 long runs, but then my most recent long run threw a wrench in everything.

My run 2.5 weeks ago was my first “decent” long run OUTSIDE in a long time (coming back from my injury in late May). I cracked 10 miles for the first time in about 3 months:

This 10+ mile run was also mentioned in this post 10 days ago.

I chose to head west down the Greenway just to avoid a few extra hills on my “normal” route. My miles “at pace” in the middle weren’t as great as previous long runs as it had been a while, but I was OK with that. Here were my half-mile splits for the middle 5 miles of that run: 3:22, 3:16, 3:22, 3:13, 3:09, 3:12, 3:14, 3:16, 3:14, 3:12 = 32:36.23 (6:31/mile pace for the faster 5 miles).

Then 1.5 weeks ago, I told myself I could ease back on the distance a bit, but I was feeling good and went just a bit farther (10.37 miles that week vs 10.25 the week before). And I did it on my “normal” running route which had 2 extra smaller hills and 1 more decent hill:

Here were the splits for my middle 5 miles of that run: 3:28, 3:14, 3:12, 3:10, 3:14, 3:13, 3:08, 3:16, 3:10, 3:07 = 32:15.88 (6:27/mile pace for the faster 5 miles).

And that brings us to this week’s long run. I had the same thought as last week where I wasn’t going to go as far if I didn’t feel great, but I ended up feeling pretty horrible. I ran the same “easier” route as 2 weeks before, but my injury from late May flared up a bit.

Notice I crossed the bridge along the south edge of the map to really shorten this run.

The first map in this post is an out-and-back with a bit down the Greenway, and this run was the same, but I didn't go "back" the way I went "out." I cut it short across the Lake/Marshall Bridge.

It started to feel a little sore around mile 4.5 or so. Instead of getting off the Greenway, heading south, and then turning around to do 4 more miles along the river, I did the little bit south of the Greenway, turned around and went about another half mile, and then turned to head straight for home (which was 1.5 miles away in that direction instead of 3.5 miles). So I still finished 5 harder miles (with half mile splits of 3:17, 3:18, 3:21, 3:13, 3:18, 3:11, 3:16, 3:16, 3:25, 3:15 = 32:54.87 [6:35/mile pace for the faster 5 miles]), but my cool down was only a mile instead of 2.5 miles. (I did 8.6 miles in the end instead of around 10.) And notice those slower last few splits of my “harder” miles - usually I’m speeding up through those miles, not slowing down. It wasn’t that I was pooped, but my mind was elsewhere focusing on “what did I do wrong now?” and “why does this hurt again?” and “dammit!”

So I just tried the treadmill for yesterday’s easy run, and I had to cut it short: 3 miles instead of 5+ because my right calf/achilles started to hurt. (But that’s why I chose to stay on the treadmill: so I could stop at any moment.) I stretched well and have been rolling well since, so I’m just hoping this is a minor minor setback and nothing big.