"I ran and ran every day, and I acquired a sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never, give up, no matter what else happened."
Wilma Rudolph, US track star
The weather in Florida is great this time of the year. And I took full advantage this week. At 6AM it's just about ideal. The temperature is in the middle 70s and the road is dry. Five days of Yoga and running.
Happy Calves:
Based on this week's running, I think I have figured out the secret to keeping my calf muscles happy and free of cramps on these long runs. Here is my list, prioritized according to my experience:
1) 3-4 times daily massage using either my hands (with a lot of lotion), theStick (which I find to be very useful), or a foam roller (which I haven't yet tried). This seems to be a really critical thing for me and it really only takes about a minute for each massage. 3-4 minutes out of my day is a very small price to pay for "cramp free" running.
2) Hydration - drink lots of water.
3) Minerals - bananas or oranges.
4) Stretching - for me, yoga.
5) Adequate warm-up - a 3-5 minute fast walk before I start to run.
As I said, I'm pretty confident I've got this thing figured out based on my experience running this week. I ran all five days when I was in Florida and my calves felt great. The first two runs were just under an hour (probably 6-7 miles), the next two were just over an hour, and the final run (I admit that by then I was beginning to tire from the week's workouts) was about 45 minutes. Except for a single mild "twinge" on 2 or 3 of the runs, my calf muscles felt great throughout. In the coming weeks I will begin to step up my mileage so I will be ready for the 13 mile finish to the triathlon in May.
This week, I am back home and plan to spend my training time on the bicycle.
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