12K kickdown

I like kickdowns a lot more than track workouts, for some reason. I get the impression from my coach that others don't like them, but I do. OK, I admit I do not enjoy the last part, the all-out part, but the first 3 parts of the 4 parts are not bad, and I always feel so good when I'm done.

I was reasonably fast today, but HR was not as high as last week when I did the 10K kickdown. I did eat a banana before I went out the door to make sure I had some carbs in me before starting. I felt like I was pushing quite hard and my breathing was very hard the last 3K, but the HR was not quite as high as usual. I was still fairly fast, though, so I'm not complaining.

I drove to Liberty Park and parked on the north end of the park. I went to weight training afterward, so it made more sense to drive; besides, this way the whole workout would be fairly flat. There are some very very slight hills on the route, but they are pretty negligible. There's a slight uphill the first 3K, slight downhill the 2nd 3K, and then I did the same route for the 3rd and 4th 3K.

I paced myself much better this week. I did the first 3K in 19:33, ave HR about 143ish (HR monitor not wet enough when I started, so it was reading my cadence for a while; 143-145 is a fairly good guess for average HR). I was pleased with this, since I wanted to do 6:30/km and this was 6:31/km. The GPS does help with pacing, I'll admit. I was also spot on for the second 3K in 18:58 (goal 19:00 or 6:20/k); ave 148/max 153. I was still feeling pretty darn good and going about a moderate pace for that second 3K. The only problem was that my calf started to cramp, and my foot got achy. I know I'm not supposed to stop during this workout, but I was at my car and I'd brought the stick, so I took a minute (really, just a minute!) to massage my calf. I was worried I wouldn't make it through without doing that.

I did the third 3K in 18:15. That was a little faster than my target pace of 18:30 (6:10/km), but I was feeling pretty good and I decided to just go with it. HR ave 155/max 162, so you see I was not pushing as hard as I could yet. I could feel my calf tightening up again and by 9K the foot was sore and I really needed to stretch again (drat!). I felt that I had to or I would not be able to finish the workout.

Time to race the fourth 3K. I was breathing very hard for the whole 3K, and I was really working it...OK, well, until the last 1K I was really working it. The 10th and 11th km were in 5:50 (ave HR 158/max 163) and 5:52 (ave 164/max165), an amazing pace for that point in this workout. But on the last 1K my foot started to actively HURT, and I did slow a little. I could have pushed harder but I think I was a little scared, and a little tired. I know I had a little more left than I gave, but I was anxious; I finished the last 1K in 6:01 (ave 164/max 166 - definitely could have done this one harder), so my fourth 3K was 17:43; ave 162/max 166 for the whole last 3K. I feel a bit guilty now about not pushing harder on the last 1K, except that I really was concerned about my foot and the pain.

Total time for the 12K: 1:14:29. 6:12/km, ave HR 153/max 166.

When I stopped I IMMEDIATELY stretched my calf and then walked slowly back to my car. The foot was hurting for sure, but not as bad as last week. As soon as I got to my car I stretched it again and got out the stick and massaged the calf. It really helped a lot! I felt significantly better and was able to get back in the car and drive to the gym.

Upon arrival at the gym, I did some PT exercises for my foot, but did them on both feet because I think that will help with the right leg calf issues. I did eccentric heel raises (fast up, slow down) one leg at a time. Yeah, that could have made the calf worse, but it didn't, and I think I need to do those to help it get stronger. I think I got a little unbalanced by only doing them on my left leg for all that time (right is noticeably weaker now, and that might be part of why this is happening). I alternated those with balance exercises on the dyna disk. Then my friend Lisa (who meets me at the gym MWF for weights) suggested I try the glute machine. Oooooh, I LIKED it! It's one leg at a time, which is awesome, and you push back to work glutes and quads get some work too. Niiiice! I alternated glutes with some shoulder presses. I didn't have a lot of time left (will have to do some more weights tomorrow to make up for that!) so I did some of the hip exercises on the ball & showed them to Lisa. We agreed that they were really good (thanks, coach!). Finally we did a good hard series of abs and stretched.

I'm icing my foot now, but I think it is going to be OK; I'm not worried like I was last week because now I know what is going on and know that it will be all right after a little rest.