Consistency

People keep asking me about what my next race is going to be. Some want to know if I'm going to run the Historic Half again (no) or Monument 10K (no), or what full marathon I'm aiming at in the fall (none). Right now I'm not thinking about races, I'm just thinking about running consistently.

I'm still on the 5-days a week plan on my come back from injury. My foot hurts less and less now when I'm not running, and I'm seemingly able to recover more quickly from the runs I do have. But I'm still experiencing pain in my ankles and achilles, and sometimes on my foot itself. Specifically I had foot pain last Tuesday during a track workout that I probably shouldn't have done in the first place. Lesson learned (although honestly I don't think I needed to learn that lesson as I already knew it, it was just stupidity). The pain in my achilles is similar to the pain I was feeling in December when people suggested it was an overuse injury. That is clearly not the case now.

Last week I ran 5 days in a row for the third week in a row. I also did two workouts and a long run of 12 miles. Tuesday's workout was stupid-- a track workout of 1000s, 800s, 600s and 400s. I won't be doing anything like that again any time soon. Friday I did hills. I had to cut the last set because I was going nowhere. I'm trying to run with my gluts more, but they just aren't there sometimes. Saturday I did 12 miles at the beach, out and back. I took it really easy on the way out, and then just ran relaxed on the way back, 20 seconds per mile faster into the headwind and cold rain. It was pretty great, but I was wiped out afterwards. I considered running on Sunday, but opted not to. No need to add another 4 miles when I'd already increased my mileage by 5 miles over last week. An increase of 5 miles is usually pretty negligible when you're running a lot, but right now that's enough of an increase.

This week I'm going to try to get back to the basics. Hills and tempo, if I do two workouts. Then another long run on soft surfaces in Louisa on Sunday. I've got class Saturday and I'm going to try to run after it, giving me 6 days for the week. We'll see. Two steps forward and one step back is still moving forward, but I'd rather just do one or two steps forward outright.