June training

On May 28th I had a really fun run up Lake Mountain with Matt Van Horn. it was my 33rd peak of the year and we had a really great time. I love that run. Then on the 31st Matt and I ran Lake Mountain again, this time with Craig and we really pushed the pace. Craig and I ran almost the whole way to the top, hiking only the very steepest section near the top. We made it to the summit in just over an hour and Matt wasn't far behind. On both of these runs I really pushed the pace on the downhill, running between a 6:30-6:40 pace the whole way down. It was a lot of fun, but on the second trip my legs were very sore and I could really feel it on that run. I wasn't thinking much about it after we finished because I felt pretty good, but I went into work and found out I would be playing 18 holes of golf in just a few hours. Well, I felt good playing until about hole 15 where I noticed a pain in my achilles tendon on my left side. It got progressively worse, and at the end of the round I was limping.

Basically I have been injured all month. The first week after the injury I took it pretty easy, although I did go climb Mt. Wire 3 days later just to test it out and although it felt good during the run, it was really sore a few minutes after I stopped. I decided I better take the next week off of running which I did. I still did the elliptical and the bike at the gym, but I didn't run for a whole week.

On Sat Jun 11th I finally ran for the first time doing 3 easy miles at the gym. everything seemed to feel fine, so the next day I tested it out with an 8 mile run followed by a 15 mile run up Provo Canyon a few days later. I found that when I was running on flat terrain it felt ok and didn't make the pain worse, so I have continued to run on it, but I haven't climbed any peaks since doing Mt. Wire on June 3rd.

I saw the doctor last week and he put me on a steroid which seemed to help some. So far it has improved a lot and there isn't a lot of pain in the tendon, but I can tell that it is weak and not 100% so I have decided not to push it at all. Last Saturday I did do another 15 miler and everything felt good, so I have decided to do my long run for the month this weekend. I am looking to do between 30-40 miles, so hopefully everything will go well.

This has been a very frustrating month for me. I know that Wasatch is coming up really quick, and I have to train and stay in shape or I will be obliterated by that race, however if I push it too hard I could end up not even being able to do it at all if I am still hurt. It is a very tough position to be in and I don't like it.