This week we made some modifications to the “plan”. The total mileage for the week was the same… just how we got there was a little different. Thursday is when it seemed to fall apart. By fall apart I simply mean we didn’t follow the plan. Thursday was supposed to be 3 mile run day… ended up being a day off. Friday was supposed to be a day off… ended up staying a day off. Now all of a sudden we were at the weekend with 14 miles to make up over the two days. Saturday morning started off with the Fort Bragg Family 5K… well that made up for 3 of those miles, now we had 11 miles left. We quickly came up with a strategy to make up the needed miles without putting either of us in the hospital… or even worse…. the couch. I had ordered a pair of training shoes from Newton Running. The Sir Isaac Newtons! The shoe is designed to promote a proper forefoot landing while running. Well here I am with these new shoes… a need to get some more miles in… sounds like a Saturday evening run. We decide to hit the mean streets of the Riverbrook Subdivision for another 3 miles. Right from the get go I could feel how much easier it was to tell if I was doing a proper forefoot strike. It made it feel weird to either heel strike or land with a mid foot strike. What I wasn’t ready for was the fact that by the first half a mile my calves were on fire. That wonderful feeling pretty much stayed the rest of the way… At that point I wished I was wearing my beloved compression socks. With the run in the bag and another 3 miles knocked out it was time for a couple things… first a shower and then to put on my compression socks. I was expecting to wake up last night to my own screams of pain and anguish. Luckily for me I woke up after a good nights sleep with the sound of my alarm clock and sore calves. It was now day two of the weekend and we still had 8 miles to get in. Since we already had to go on post so that I could get my MRI on my wrist (possible torn ligament from weight lifting) we figured we would get our miles in on Pope Army Airfield. There is a 6.5 mile loop around the airfield that is mostly sidewalks. We started off at the Pope Gym did the loop and then added another 1.5 miles to get in our 8 miles. This was are LSD (Long Slow Distance) run so we set a goal of running a 10:00 minute mile pace. Our overall average ended up being 9:50 minutes per mile. Another week closer to OBX and we are still on track.
