Body, don't fail me now!

I probably need to thinking about stretching more. My Achilles tendons, particularly on my left leg, are starting to protest. I've been icing and using ibuprofen, but Saturday I tried to do my long run (supposed to be 7 miles) and only got two miles in because of the pain. Gave it a couple days off (I did swim, but since I do breast stroke the tendons aren't aggravated), then tried again yesterday. I taped both ankles up with KT Tape and hit the trail, sporting my new water belt and armband cell phone holder.

The first mile was pretty fast (for me), but then I started feeling some minor pain so I stopped and stretched on my walk intervals. That definitely helped, but the tendons continued to bother me. I continued on and went the full 3.5 miles out, so I was committed to the whole distance. It got to the point where I had to stretch on every walk interval. And then the heat started getting to me because I got out there too late--it was only maybe 78 or 80, but that's hotter than I'm used to. I ended up just ignoring the intervals and running on the flat and downhill portions and walking the uphills. Thankfully, the extra walking really helped and it got to the point where my leg didn't really bother me anymore and I was able to keep running in small distances (1-2 minutes at a time) all the way until the end. Now I'm going to take three days off in hopes of it being better for my 8-mile run on Saturday, although I may swim tomorrow. I just hate it when I have goals and my body doesn't want to keep up!

I do think the swimming in between is helping me a lot. It seems like each time we up the distance or change the intervals to be more challenging, it's not as hard of a change as it used to be. Not that it's easy to run 7 miles yet, and not that I'm not huffing and puffing and sweating and getting tired, but somehow it's all easier. I don't get nervous about running further because I know I can do it. If I made 7 miles yesterday in adverse conditions, I know I can do 8 when I'm feeling right. I also want to add biking soon, but maybe I should give the tendons a chance to heal. I'm also going to try doing some yoga to help with flexibility and such, so maybe that will help.

Total miles for the summer: 75. 3/4 of the way to the 100 mile goal. Cake!