Damn the pain!
Yesterday’s five-miler started out great. After the first warm-up mile, the second mile, without trying too hard, was 6:26.
My best “opening mile” since July 2007.
The “opening mile” is actually the second mile – the very first mile is simply a warm-up, in the 8-9 minute range.
Mile three is a “recovery” mile with slower jogging, three minutes of backwards jogging, some walking and stretching, etc.
Mile four is designed to be the fastest mile of the five. I use this for conditioning and especially for learning to gauge pace. I mentally aim for a mile time, then study my 400, 800, and 1,200 split times to see how my pace is going.
I also try to run negative splits, meaning, the second half is faster than the first half. Last month, a did a mile time trial, and clocked 5:38, with 2:53 and 2:45 splits.
I had juice left at the end, because I was running about 90%. Going a full 100% felt risky, since I hadn’t run that hard in nealy two years.
Yesterday, however, at the mile four, I was excited. But quickly became discouraged as the pain started right away and I couldn’t shake it.
Naturally, I backed off, and jogged the rest of the way, called Dr Wagner, my podiatrist and scheduled a 10:15AM appointment.
Now I’m back on Celebrex, and an anti-inflammatory heel cream. I also delivered a script to my friends at Florida Hospital Celebration Health. Electric-stimulation and massage therapy might be helpful.
I remain optimistic. How can I not?
Hope you have a great Saturday. Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂