Half Of A Brick

This morning Drew got up to do a brick and asked if I wanted to run along with him for the running part after he dropped his bike off at home. I was nervous that I'd be running to slow for him and holding him back, but I agreed to go along with him.

He got home from his bike ride up the Westside Path, changed shoes and we headed out. I took keys along with me, but he didn't bring any with him. We had planned on running south on the Westside Path together. I figured we'd run to 23rd Street and then turn around and run home, which would be about a 4 mile run.

We started out okay. Or at least I started out okay. I kept asking Drew if we were going too slow, but he said that it was fine with him. I think that since I know he can run so much faster than I can, I always feel like I'm holding him back. Even though sometimes I don't think that he minds.

After we had been running for just a few minutes, I noticed that my calf was still bothering me from yesterday's barefoot expedition. It wasn't that bad. More like an annoying muscle cramp. Enough to say ouch, but not enough to make me stop. I pushed through until we decided to turn around at 26th Street.

At that point, I told Drew that I had to walk for a minute and would he please take the keys and run home by himself? I just really felt like there was too much pressure on me and I didn't want to push myself too hard or hurt my left calf any more than I already had. I mean, yesterday's run of 5+ miles was the longest I'd been running since the triathlon!

Drew really tried to stick around telling me that it wasn't a big deal if I had to walk a little bit, he wasn't in a big hurry, but mentally I just needed him to not be there. I felt too bad about holding him back. So, he ran off and I walked for another little bit and then I managed to run most of the rest of the way home. I knew that since we had cut 3 blocks off our planned run, we'd come in somewhere under 4 miles. My goal since I had been walking some already was to try to get home in less than 40 minutes.

Even though I had to take another quick walking break (I should mention that all my walking was done at my fast walking pace, not regular walking), I managed to make it home in under 38 minutes. I was thrilled at that! Even better? Drew was waiting on our front stoop for me! My leg still felt tight the rest of the way home, but I'm thinking that resting for a day or two might be all it needs. It doesn't feel like anything serious.

We went inside and had a nice recovery breakfast of waffles, strawberries and turkey bacon. I mean, I think those are recovery foods. Maybe I've got that wrong? Especially since I ended up taking a nap and foiling my big weekend plan! Which was to go swimming with Terrier again. But when I woke up from my nap, I really hadn't had much to eat today and even less to drink and I just didn't think that getting up and going swimming was in my best interest. There's always next time.

Running
Time: 37:44
Distance: 3.70 miles
Pace: 10:11/mile
Calories: 394
Maximum HR: 194
Average HR: 179