My Achilles was feeling a lot better this morning so I decided to take it out for a test run and see how it responded. I ran from my house to the top of the street, where I stopped and walked up the first hill in order not to aggravate the little bastard that's been crippling me for the last three days. The father of mediocrity for the running masses would be proud. He might even try to convince me that this is the surefire way to my next PR and that I should engage in the practice more often. In response, I'd likely laugh in his face. But that's neither here nor there.
Moving on - which is exactly what I did after my brief walking break - I covered the four mile loop in 28 minutes and 40 seconds, only experiencing some minor tightness and discomfort during the first mile before finishing things up relatively unscathed. The Achilles and surrounding area were a bit tight afterwards, which I expected, but steady doses of ice and ibuprofen throughout the afternoon seemed to keep any problems at bay. For the record, I've been popping 800mg of ibuprofen twice a day and icing on an hourly basis if I'm able to. I tried a contrast bath this afternoon, an idea I got from Dave Burnham while perusing his log. It didn't seem to yield any immediate positive effects, but I figure it couldn't hurt to try. The rehab plan for the rest of the week is to continue with the I & I routine and (hopefully) add a mile or two running each day for the rest of this week. The key will be listening to my body and making smart decisions along the way, key word here being SMART. As Kevin said to me in an e-mail the other day: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
In the day's other exciting events, I met Brendan for an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at the Sukura Tokyo. In a word, fantastic. For $8.99 I had a big plate of chicken and vegetable stirfry on my first trip to the bar, followed by a second course of beef, chicken and vegetables over rice.
Dessert was a bowl of vanilla pudding, red Jello and a couple pieces of fried dough. While the main dishes were mainly Japanese, the desserts threw me for a bit of a loop - but I was OK with that. My bill ended up coming to 15 bucks thanks to a conniving waiter who kept asking if I wanted to refill my soda. With the glass being rather small, and at a starting peice of a buck-fifty, I made the assumption that refills were free. Well, a six-dollar drink charge served as evidence of my unwise thinking. Other than the soda scam, though, I'd say I got my money's worth.
Before I forget, a quick shoutout and good luck wish to my Reebok teammate and training partner, Ryan Carrara, as he heads to Ireland tomorrow for a couple races and more than a few pints of homegrown Guinness.
Jumping around even more, I'll be doing an interview on Wednesday with Alan Culpepper for mensracing. It will likely be a few weeks before it gets transcribed and eventually posted, but keep an eye out for it. I plan on grilling him about his recent half-marathon in Austin, preparations for Boston, and the upcoming 15K in Jacksonville, amongst a host of other things. I've always been a pretty big fan of Alan and look forward to picking his brain and sharing my findings with the rest of the online running world. Should be a good one, so stay tuned.
And that's gonna do it for now. It's a very slow night here in the office and I actually don't have much to work on, but I also don't have anything more to add to this entry either. I'll try and create some excitement to report about at some point tomorrow. Take it easy.
Quote of the day:
Bounce back.
- from KG's log
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