Knowing it was my last chance to paddle in mild weather before much colder air arrived, I found the gumption to get down to the river Friday afternoon. My body still feeling the effects of my struggle with the whitewater boat on Tuesday, I opted for the surfski and did a reasonably nice 60-minute paddle.
Friday evening I tuned in to Greg Barton's lecture. Greg's suggestions for offseason cross-training didn't really include anything I hadn't thought of; he mentioned things like weight training, bike riding, running, and cross-country skiing (sadly not available where I live). But he did give me some ideas of where to focus my strength training, and maybe the best thing he said was "I let the weather be my coach," meaning that if it's a particularly nice day when he'd planned to do an indoor workout, he'll go paddle instead. I've behaved similarly myself, of course, but hearing a guy like Greg say it is always reassuring.
As if on cue, the weather turned blustery and much colder over the weekend. I gave my body a break and spent time on non-athletic things. Then yesterday I started a new gym routine that includes some arm and core exercises all done on the stability ball.
Also yesterday I took the bold step of buying a new pair of running shoes. I was quite the serious runner back in high school and college, but up until now I think it had been some 20 years since I'd so much as gone for a run. That changed today. This morning I put on my new shoes, stepped out the door, and started to run. I'd been wondering whether my body would even remember how to run, but I'm happy to say that it does.
I knew the important thing was not to bite off too much on my first time out. And my body quickly chimed in with its opinion just a couple of minutes in: running was not going to be anywhere near as effortless as I remember it feeling in the prime of my competitive career. I'd gone out thinking I'd run maybe 30 minutes, but I quickly scaled that ambition back to 20. All those capillary beds I'd once built up in my running muscles are long gone, I realized.
I was headed back toward home, and then, about 14 minutes into the run, I felt a sharp pain in my left calf muscle. I knew better than to push through it. I stopped and walked the rest of the way.
I'm still feeling some pain there now, but it doesn't have the feel of a terribly serious injury. I was thinking I'd do my next run Thursday or Friday, but now we'll just have to see how soon this thing heals. Sigh... sometimes it seems like my body doesn't want to let me do anything these days.
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