13/14 April (20 miles)

Hello! This weekend's run was supposed to be a straight 20 miles, on Saturday. Unfortunately, my calf had other plans. I injured my right calf during a mud run about a month ago and have been nursing the injury since. I thought it was back to 100%, but found out otherwise yesterday. I decided Friday night to get up early (the 20 miles wasn't the crazy part on Saturday...getting up at 0400 to run 20 miles so that I could make it to a 1000 massage appointment...that was the crazy part) so I could knock the run out early, but being a female I worry about running alone sometimes. My thought was to get up, out the door by 0430 so that I could start the first part of my run on base, which is somewhere I worry less about (for the most part). Unfortunately, the base I'm at right now is very small and built in only two directions--uphill or downhill. I decided to run the first 1.5 miles uphill and get it done...very bad plan. I think that's where I injured my leg again; being a Floridian, hills are still a surprise to me and I can't seem to run them without something happening. As hot as Florida will be when I get back, at least it is flat. Anyway, I got to mile 6.5 and realized that I couldn't finish the rest without a serious injury. Fortunately I was only around 2.5 miles from the base, so I just did a limp/jog/walk back and got in nine miles. Not the prettiest miles, but nine miles is still nine miles. I came home took and quick nap and went to my massage appointment. My masseuse just happens to be a long-distance runner herself, and gave me the most glorious massage **ever**. She iced my calf, massaged it, iced it, massaged it and I left feeling like a million bucks. Another short nap and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and hoping I could finish my run. Turns out, yes. Yes, I could. I did 11 miles this morning without any real problems and actually had a pretty good run. The area I like to run here in Monterey is along the coast and it is amazingly beautiful. This time of the year there are fields of flowers that lead right to the shores. It's easy to get lost in thought, staring at such beauty. On Saturday, I was able to see some of the seal pups along the way but I'm assuming they hide when the sun comes out because I didn't see any today. I've come to realize that the scenery here is both a good and bad thing. The weather is so amazing that I should be running with really good times...but I tend to get lost staring and wind up slowing down. Can't really complain about it, but it is something I've noticed. Here are my times: Saturday: 9 miles, 2:10 Sunday 11 miles, 2:25