Disappointing morning

Well, it was bound to happen. A workout that wasn't spectacular. I woke up this morning with bothersome stiffness and mild pain in my right calf and shin muscles (yes, it is muscular pain, not anything else), as well as some persistent right knee/IT tightness, etc. Nevertheless, I went down to join the Gazelles for the 1000m Meriden hilly repeats. That's my favorite Gazelles workout, mainly because I think it's such a good combination strength and speedwork.

However, I was struggling to get loose as we did our short warmup jog to the start of the repeats, finishing at the back of the pack. During the drills, I was very clumsy and couldn't get loose at all. Once we did the finishing strides, I knew that I shouldn't be trying the repeats. I reported my findings to Gilbert, and he agreed that I should sit this one out. He has told us in the past that the most important workouts each week are the long run and the marathon pace run (progressive run this week), and I had done both of those in good fashion.

He had me do some easy backwards running up the long first hill of the course, to try to loosen up my calf. I did 3 of those. Then, after watching me run on level ground, he decided that I am not engaging my quads enough in my running motion, which is causing my hamstrings and calves to work harder than they need to, plus I'm restricting my range of motion with my contact and pushoff. He wants to see me to work on form, perhaps tomorrow morning, even.

I did the finishing 5 uphill striders with the main gang after they had done their repeats, and did the 2 backwards hill climbs as well. By the time I had finished those, my legs felt better, and I had regained my smoothness in my stride. However, I still think I did the right thing in avoiding the workout today. I'm disappointed because I enjoy this workout, but I'll get other chances to do these again.

The cooldown jog back to RunTex felt pretty good. I iced down the calf when I got home, and have done some light stretching throughout the day. I'm still a little clunky, but hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

For the day, a miniscule 2.4 total miles, but I'm trying to be okay with that. Tomorrow is a 45-60 minute easy recovery effort. I'll go to the trail to do that tomorrow, hopefully, and then meet Gilbert and see if he wants to work with me while the Wednesday 9:00 gang is doing their 10 x 1:00 fartlek loop. I've also got my massage scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, so those combined activities should get me back on the good path.