Training in Montana

4 elliptihell miles. I'm thankful for warmups. I wasn't feeling it this morning and I thought I might stop after a mile or so, but SportsCenter was in my face on a 50" flatscreen so I kept going. Ended up feeling good after 1.5 miles so I took it to 4. Also, amazed that a 15 resistance is good but doesn't get my HR up, but a 16 resistance took me into the low 150s, which is what I wanted.

I can still feel my achilles a little bit when I walk around so I'll stick with the elliptical or bike for a while more.

Woke up this morning to go run a couple miles and I stopped after not very far. My left achilles was way too tight for me to be comfortable running on it. In all fairness to my achilles, I didn't warm it up or stretch it, and maybe it needs that. I never warm up or stretch as that's what my first slow mile is for. However, it left me pretty disappointed. I've been in a funk since I've not been running as I really miss my alone time out on the open country roads. Deer and elk hunting filled the void these past 5 weeks but that's ended now. I think my wife and kids are ready for me to feel like running again. I'm a huge Christmas grouch. Maybe in a few days. Until then, need to hit the elliptical and bike. If I can do the awesome spinning class I'll get the endorphins I need. I think it's on Thursday.

Cue Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. I ran. Maybe a bit too dramatic for only 2.5 miles, so I'll save that for my next 10 miler. I'll know I'm golden when I can run 10.

I took Kam's thinking into play and after doing the elliptical for 2.5 miles I tried the treadmill. It worked really well. I started at only a 5.0 and no pain (because I was warm) then after a bit bumped to a 5.5 for a while and ended at a 6.0. I did feel it a bit at 6.0 so that tells me I'm going to need to slowly ease back into running over a few weeks. Perfect for me as I have no planned races until late spring. Just glad to run without pain.

For my sake: Before leaving the house I did some calf stretches and some calf raises on the stairs. After working out did 3 x 20 sec calf stretches then 3 x 20 sec calf stretch on a block of wood, then did a few calf raises on the stairs. I need to do more warming up exercises even before getting on the elliptical as it's just super tight.

Didn't do any eccentric heel drops yesterday as I was too tired & busy, but the achilles felt much better this morning. Warmed up for 1 mile on the elliptical (no tightness) then did 3 miles on the treadmill. Started at 5.0, went to 5.5, then 6.0 for a while. At 6.0 I felt some tightness creeping back in, especially if I made too much up/down motion with my foot, so I bumped back down to 5.5 to finish up. Mentally it's tough to run that slowly but just running is enough. It also helped that the really cool WWII in HD was on the History channel. Amazing what our troops went through in that war. Hats off to our war heroes on this Pearl Harbor Day.