What have I done?!?

Ran another 4 at approximately 11-minute-mile pace

Superman and I went out last night for our regular Tuesday night run. I'm trying to make 4 miles the standard, so we took the same route as last Tuesday. We started out fast, as usual, and I wasn't comfortable at all. Superman had done 6 miles the previous evening, so he really didn't want to hear my grouse about stiff and tired legs. 


The route goes up a slow grade to the top of the street, then continues up around the corner and most of the way to the next turn - about 1.2 miles total. From that turn it's downhill for about a mile and a half, levels out for a mile, then goes uphill again for the final quarter mile. 


Last week we did this at an 11:05 pace, which was astounding to me at the time. I then went back and did it at a 12:04 pace, which included stops to readjust toe tape, and walking breaks. It seems I forgot the 11:05 pace, because I was thrilled to log in an 11:47 pace last night. 


Made a golf-course pit stop
I actually do have room to be thrilled, because that time includes a pit stop at the golf course. That was an adventure in itself, which I hope never to repeat! What can I say though?  When you gotta, you gotta. I did the math and realized there was no way I was going to make it another 2 miles before exploding. I figure, minus the pit stop, we averaged somewhere around the 11-minute-mile pace from last week. 


Strained my calf
Once we passed the golf course, things were a bit easier. My S1 wasn't bothering me at all, as it has for the past week. As we hit the home stretch, my calf started cramping. I could feel things in my heel as well, so assumed it was an extension of the plantar fasciitis that flares up occasionally, and pushed on. I expected my heel to be painful today, and that I would have to stretch A LOT over the next few days. Instead, it's my calf that is bothering me, with just a twinge in my heel. I'm only vaguely concerned, as I assume the cure is the same as for plantar fasciitis, which means a lot of stretching over the next few days. 


What I will NOT do
I learned my lesson when I first started running this past January. Running up steep hills in the snow introduced me to heel pain, which I now know to be plantar fasciitis. I simply ran through it, believing it would go away. It did not go away. I ended up benched for a month while it healed, then had to start all over. I will not be running through this. I will stretch and let it heel a few days before trying to run on it again. It means not running Superman's hilly 4.5-miler tonight, though we may walk them. I will take it one day at a time, and decide as I go whether this weekend's long run should be truncated, or if I will even run at all.