Downsizing My Hard Days

Easy 5 miles this morning. I kept my HR in the 130's most of the way. The run was generally uneventful. I ran over to De Anza and rumbled around the track and the par course so each loop was 400 plus meters. The weather has turned cool. The latest heat wave has subsided. Smoky skies though. The fires in Henry Coe Park have sent a cloud of residue which covers the South Bay like a diaphanous, filmy blanket.

I will definitely need to be careful. I have some lingering heel pain which could be a plantar fascia problem. If I have it, it's coming from the type of workouts I did this past Monday so I need to be vigilant. That's how I got PF back in the mid 1980's. Long hard tempo runs. I am taking Advil, icing and taping my foot. It doesn't hurt when I run but I can feel it afterwards. I think I can run through it but I will have to downsize my hard days. I am not an NFL football player but I watched a special on the physical price many of these guys are now paying for the punishment they both took and inflicted back in their playing days. My favorite running back Earl Campbell can barely walk and even then he needs help.

I guess in running terms these guys played like we run 80-100 mile weeks. I think on of the reasons why I am still standing is that while I loved running, it was a love that ended at about 60-65 minutes a day with a now and then 80-90 minute run. So I ran 60-70 mpw rather than 80-100. I also cut back later in my racing career to 30 mpw (running basically every other day). It saved me so that I can still run when I want to. I can still do a ten mile day now and then. If I forget myself now and then by pounding up the Los Gatos Dam Trail then I get a message. This time the message has arrived in the form of some pain on the very bottom of my right foot.

Slow down, the message whispers, or I will ground you.