Calf Better?

Time will tell, but I have had a few days free of calf pain, so I tried going back to the training plan today.  Unbelievably there was no pain!  I found it hard going despite the gentle pace, but that didn't matter - there was no pain!  Hopefully that's it better.  We'll see...  The plan today was standard fartlek after 40m of easy running, and 55m in total.  I kept to the lower end of the power targets, but I stayed within the bounds of the plan for the run, so I’m very pleased.  Not sure right now if I do the next day of the plan tomorrow or take a day off to build up more slowly.  Not sure!!  As I said, I wanted to do this run gently, so I slowed from my usual 11.3kmh on the mill to 10.7kmh for the easy running.  And I slowed from my standard 19.1kmh on the mill for the 8s sprints to 18kmh.  Still fast enough to reach the planned sprinting power target but very close to the lower end of that!  But fine!  The only other thing to say is that the first 40m of easy running wasn’t all at 10.7kmh.  I started at 10kmh, then after 2:30m I upped it to 10.3kmh and then after a further 2:30m I upped it to 10.6kmh.  I thought it best to start very gently and slowly ramp up.  After a total of 20m I went up from 10.6kmh to 10.7kmh – what a huge speed increase 😊.  The only other thing about this easy run that was slightly easier than what I did before, was that I started timing it when the mill started.  Essentially when I was at standstill.  In the past I have waited until I am up to my target speed before starting the watch but there’s no need for that, I think.  Also, a standing start is arguably more realistic!   Although that was gentle running for 40m I still found it quite hard going and I was bizarrely quite happy to have to increase the speed for the sprints just for some variety!  The fartlek fast bits, at 18kmh, were a bit faster than last Tuesday’s sprints (which were 16kmh) but slower than my standard which is 19.1kmh.  There was 7m easy running at the end, after the fartlek, which I did at 10.7kmh on the mill.  Didn’t find any of this easy (and it really should have been easy!!), but I did it with no pain, so I am delighted!  The total distance was 9.38km at a pace of 5:51m/km which is not quick, but not so bad.  The mill said 9.88km which is quite a difference but, as always, I believe the Stryd foot-pod!  Also, like last week, I won the indoor bowls after the run again, and again I was awful, but again I just had a great team-mate! 😊.  Bowling not so important as having no calf pain on this run!!!

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