Two Good Weekend Runs

I didn't run at all Monday through Friday. I wanted to, but too many things ran interference and since I've had tendon issues on the bottom of my right heel I haven't worried too much about reduced mileage and rest.

I went out yesterday for a 9.0 mile run and felt the heel aggravated again so I iced it. It was still tender this morning but I figured with an inch of new snow on the ground it would be ok with the extra cushioning. It was. I could have gone farther without difficulty but I ran out of turf. This may sound odd but I don't like to repeat a route or part of one. To go farther I would have needed to break out of the area I was running in. I arrived back at the house having run 9.6 miles. I fell hard twice. The first fall was due to me slowing down on top of a snow-covered concrete pad to go over a fence; it had a quarter inch of perfect ice covering it under the snow. The second fall was due to ice as well. The second I committed my foot to the landing I knew I'd made a mistake. I was on an incline, my left foot slid and as I was falling forward the foot hit a coarse surface and grabbed. My lower leg bent forward under me at the knee and fortunately released just in time or it would have ended up like some of those gruesome football injuries.

My mileage has been in the teens for the past two weeks. I hope to get a couple of midweek runs in so that I get back up into the twenties for now. I'm going to participate in an event on the 20th in Maine. It is called a "fat ass",(I don't know the etymology of the term) but runners stake out a course and run it the number of times that they choose. The loop in this case is 5.17 miles through uneven countryside. One could run the loop up to six times to make it a 50k event. I anticipate running it three times unless the surface conditions are extremely unfavorable. The event is sponsored by my sister for her 50th birthday.