I would call Sunday's 18 mile run a success, though it was slow -- as it turns out, not as slow as I thought, but my group is speedy, so I was far behind.
I ran out 9 with my group and felt good, but my calf was a little tight -- but not painful yet. So at the u-turn, I slowed down a bit. My group slipped ahead, but not so far they were ever out of sight. I'd catch up to them at each water stop (every 2 miles), grab a quick drink, and head out with them and again have them slip away. But I was looking at my paces, and I was only about 15 secs/mile slower than we're supposed to be running. But they're running about 15 secs/mile faster than we're supposed to be running, so that widens the gap.
But I'll take it. I feel like I'd have no hope of doing the race if I didn't run an 18 miler. Ideally, I'll have at least one 20 (next week) and one 22 (later), but if things get worse with my calf and I have to take time off or something, at least with an 18 I feel like I could do the race -- though obviously it wouldn't be pretty. At this point, I kind of doubt it will be pretty anyway. I'm still at the point where speed is painful.
I jogged a bit at boot camp this morning -- nothing fast, and less than half a mile total, but it's a start. I think now that I'm completely pain-free when running at my easy pace, I can probably start adding some more miles.
I'll slowly build that up, and hopefully in a couple weeks the soleus will be patched up enough that I can start picking up the pace.
Anyway, I'm calling a completed 18 a success. Add in the fact that I finally got my brake fluid level checked, went to the Greek Festival, wrote some belated thank-you notes, and did some party planning for next weekend, plus laundry!, I would have to say the whole weekend was a success!
Feels like things are so busy lately, and I have the feeling it's not going to ease up as the holidays start getting closer and closer. I need to start shopping! The next 2 weekends hopefully I can make some progress on nieces and nephew and maybe even a sibling or two and take those home in a few weeks when we go for my brother's wedding.
Yes, you could definitely do the race with just logging 18miler. Obviously it's not ideal but I agree, it's best to rest the calf instead of pushing it. You know what they say: It's better to get to the starting line undertrained and healthy rather than overtrained and injured!
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