So the good news is today is the first day of fall! Fall is my favorite season, although around here I feel like it doesn’t stick around too long before winter rolls in.

The bad news: We are going to call this week of training unlucky week 13. It’s unrealistic to expect everything to go perfectly, and as planned over the course of 18 weeks of training. During and after the Ragnar Relay, my right lower leg started to bother me a lot. Initially it was hurting even when I was just sitting which was no good. I practically took an entire week off this past week, while spending time resting, icing, and doing a bit of light foam rolling.

Monday- Rest. I was supposed to run an easy 7 miler, but my right lower leg and right hip were really bothering me.

Tuesday- 2 mile run on the treadmill. This was supposed to be my third strength workout of training: 3 x 2 miles. The interval workouts are my favorite part of training, and I always feel awesome after conquering one of them. I started out with a one mile warm up and then ran the first mile of my first 2 mile interval. My right lower leg was very bothersome, so I ended the run at 2 miles.

Sometimes I’ll have some pain in my leg when I first start running, but it dissipates by the first half mile and then never bothers me the rest of the run or after the run. I’m not sure what that means, and I’m not sure if it means I actually have an issue going on or not. I ran the first 2 miles of this run to see if the pain would go away, and when it didn’t I chose to stop.

Wednesday- Rest (this was a scheduled rest day… so at least I’m sticking to my training plan..?). I spent time in the evening alternating between icing and heat, and that had my leg feeling pretty good.

Thursday- Another day off from running and another day spent doing some foam rolling and hot/cold therapy. Both of which seem to be helping my leg.

Friday- And another day off and more time spent resting and icing my leg. It had started feeling better at this point.

Saturday- I headed out to the Dora Trail for a test run on my leg. Unfortunately, I was only able to run 2 miles. Every single step was painful, and I finished the run feeling very defeated and frustrated.

One good part about this run is I chose to run in a new pair of shoes. I think my old shoes (which I have been running in since February) have gotten broken down and may be contributing to the problem. These new shoes are the same version/model as the old ones, just a new obnoxious color:

Sunday- I met up with Kim at the Dora Trail and was able to run 4 miles with her (she was running 9 miles total). I would have loved to run the entire run with her, because it was a perfect fall morning. The air was crisp and clean, and it was in the mid-50’s. Perfect.

My leg was feeling a bit better during this run. I had a bit of pain, but it was very minimal compared to Saturday. After Saturday’s run I decided to give kinesiology tape a try and it really seemed to help! Maybe this, in addition to all the icing and stretching and resting will be the answer.

Once I got home, I spent time using my two new homemade ice packs. A while back, my Dad emailed me a picture he found on the internet about making homemade ice packs. I mixed 3 parts water with 1 part rubbing alcohol in each gallon-sized Ziploc bag and then froze them overnight in the freezer. The packs are super cold, but they also remain soft so I can mold them around my leg.

Total Miles: 8 miles (a far cry from where I was supposed to be this week… like 50 miles short… but I think I’m on the mend!)