In April, I ran the Fountain Lake Five Mile after having been sick for two weeks. It was miserably cold and windy and nothing about running at race pace felt natural to me. My average pace was 6:47 per mile, which was a far cry from the 6:10 average I ran last year. Of course, conditions were much better then, but even if conditions were better this year, I don’t think I would have been close to 6:10.
I’m now using a Garmin Forerunner to log my workouts. Last Saturday I ran a tempo run at the Blazing Star trail, which was 20:00 at 6:40 pace. Turned out that was a touch too fast given my current level of fitness. This Saturday I am aiming for a more conservative 6:50 pace.
As a result of last Saturday’s overextended run, I’ve got a very tight tendon down the inside of my lower leg. (Flexor hallucis longus muscle (FHL)). A little research this morning uncovered the scope of this mild injury. It’s the tendon that flexes my big toe. I get relief by gradually stretching my big toe back.
It wasn’t just the run on Saturday that caused this. I also increased my mileage last week. Ah, the perils of getting into race shape.