A Little Irish Luck

So today I ran for the first time in 2 weeks, it is week 4 of the calf injury.  I ran the St Patrick's Day 5K, it was a beautiful day, cold but sunny and I was anxious to see how the calf held up.  I left my watch at home and I was going to run by feel, I would go as fast as the calf would let me, if I had any sharp pain, I would stop and walk.  I ran all the way to the halfway turnaround, took a short break to massage the calf to see if it was tightening up and it felt good so I carried on to the finish.  The run was not pain free, I felt the calf muscle, a dull pain just to let me know it was there but manageable.  I resisted temptation to speed up as we got to the finish and I was surprised my my time.  My time was faster then I thought it might be, it was a 7min km pace, my long slow run pace when I am fit, more then I hoped for today.  The calf muscle is sore now but nothing unbearable.

Today's run did tell me that the calf would not be ready for half marathon training anytime soon however so I need to adjust my plans. Tomorrow I start training to walk the half marathon May 5th not run it as I had planned.  For some reason walking does not bother the calf muscle as much as running does.  I might be able to run part of it but my cardio will not be good enough to run the whole thing, that I know.  Hopefully the weather will get warm soon so I can cycle more but for now I hope to swim 3 times a week, cycle twice and run a 5K when I can, Saturdays will be my long slow walk instead of a run.  I walked a half marathon in 2010 so I have a time to beat which will keep me motivated.  I will now focus running the 10K in Halifax and the 5K in Ottawa rather then worrying about the half marathon.  

We make plans and when things do not go as planned, we adjust, simple as that.  I am not going to get upset about this, it is what it is but I am not going to let me defeat me either.  I will take any bit of Irish Luck I can get however so I can sort out this injury and return to running soon but until then I will be 'walking away with myself'.

“All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.” 
― Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two