Sorry to hear that, Larry. I hope the care you're taking pays off! I ran 3.4 miles with my running partner today. My ankle doesn't hurt, but I can "feel" it. I'm icing and stretching a lot. I'm hoping for 4.4 miles on Wednesday, but I'll have to play it by ear. Ick. DS15 ran the hilly LL Bean 10k in Freeport in 36:48. He was NOT happy with his race, because he started out too fast (first mile in about 5 minutes). I volunteered, so I got to see him at mile 2. He came in 23rd out of 918, 7th in his age group (15-19).

Hi folks. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far. I've been pretty much maintaining base for the last month or so. I'll spend the rest of the summer doing that, and sprinkling in a couple of short races. I ran my first 5K in almost 2 years last Wednesday. I finished in 21:16, which is a masters PR for me. I am not sure what my PR is. Somewhere in the mid 20's I think ... It was years ago. I want to run a couple of more 5K's to see how low I can go. No HM for me this fall. I am pretty sure that my goal race will be a 15K at the end of October. I really don't have the time to travel and this race is local. Not sure of an exact time goal yet ... maybe sub 70 minutes. Good luck to everyone with their training.

Cheffy, reading your post was like reading my mind . . . I too wish I could be as fast as MrPH. Yikes. I'm still trying to beat my 26:15 5k PR. And yeah, who turned up the heat? The last two days have been misery! And dh is so good to remind me "Wait til August!" Thanks, babe. Larry and Teresa, I am also thinking of you, and trying to take care of my own knees. Here's to good healing!

Cheffy, are you stretching a lot? Be very careful!!

I am not stretching a bunch. For me, Stretching seems to make things worse. I have very small muscle build, so I am quite sure that this is just the pains of increasing muscle girth. I know it's not excess mileage, I am training well within normal mileage ramp, and it's not too fast pace, as I am staying within my recomended training paces. ....... Just have to be careful, and train carefully.... I am going to back off the hill workouts for a bit except for my long run, where there is a good sized hill that I run 5 times .....

Hey Larry, For Stretching, I do mainly tight calf exercies, as when I started running, I developed the common newbie shin splints.... I recovered from them with no problem, but due to all the Long Slow distance running that I do with building my base, I find my tight calves still problematic. I have a Pro Stretch thingy that works pretty well, but I find I do best when I do just some light stretching after my runs. I also Foam Roll my calves to keep the knots at bay..... I am also pretty limber, and take Pilates classes to aid with keeping " Loose".... I just find that If I stretch too much, I end up tweaking muscles very easily. Since I am injury prone, I just listen to my body and do what feels good and right at the moment.

Lots going on here... On the 5K .... It's definitely a tough race. Give me a 10 miler or a half marathon any day. I don't consider myself fast. I remember in high school I was one of the slower people on the football team. Since I don't have much natural speed I focus on holding pace longer to bring my race times down. For me that means running more mileage. On the stretching .... Yeah, definitely a personal thing. From my experience and also what I have heard stretching a cold muscle does more harm than good. If you want to stretch before running you should either walk as Larry does or go for an easy jog for a few minutes first. Personally I don't stretch at all before I run. I just take it easy the first 10 - 15 minutes. I stretch after I run, and also like the foam roller for loosening the muscles. Cheffy ... Hill work is hard on the calf muscles. I think limiting the hill work should help you. On the heat .... My average training pace is getting slower now that the summer heat is here. I don't worry about it, and just focus on effort and let the pace fall where it wants. Things will rebound in the fall. Summer = hydrate and slow down.

Well, I wasn't able to run more than a half mile last night. I guess the good thing is that this time the injury was bothering me and I stopped, last Monday (6/30) I ran three miles pain free and it was a sudden pull again. So I was saying to my wife last night, that I'm glad really glad right now that I had scrubbed my plans for running my first HM in Napa CA in July and instead had done the training early ang got it in already in early June. Then again, if the trip was scheduled we'd have to make it and would have had more time to visit the wineries. Cheffy, glad to see that you are doing some stretching. I'm confused though and had to go back and read your posts. In one thread you said it was your quads and the next you said it was your calves! As Teresa indicated, her PT really hammered home the stretching. Again, I believe it's everyone's personal choice. However if strectching is bothering you, perhaps you were over stretching or not performing the right stretching exercises appropriate to your needs. One of the biggest mistakes I see in people who stretch is that they bounce or perform fast stretching rather than slow and holding it. Just my .02 cents. Here is a link to some pretty good information on stretching. http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_toc.html Cheffy, also glad to hear that you have fun on every one now. As for my injury, it was due to overtraining. I did a long run on Sunday, skipped my day off on Monday and ran a pretty hard 5M and then ran hills (5.4M) on Tuesday. Pulled it as I crested the last hill with less than a half mile to go. So it's my own fault and I know it. Over confidence on my fitness level I guess. Teresa, I've had so many computer problems this year. My main computer hard drive crashed, my back-up had issues with a software problem in Explorer. I could connect to the internet but not send or recieve. I spent so many hours on the phone with my provider and Dell that it was ridiculous. So I decided to just buy a new Dell. That was fine up to a few weeks ago when we had a series of power outages and all of a sudden I'm having the same problem with my new Dell. My work laptop wireless isn't working either, so curently I'm using a computer from 4 computers ago which is extremely slow. I've got to find 4+ hours of free time to call Dell and try to resolve my issue and time to get my IT guys at work to look at my laptop. MRPH, I find as I've progressed over the past two years, that I'm liking the longer distances and an mazed at how well my paces have been. However, I do like the all out run of a 5K. Right now, I'm just really anxious to get back to being able to run. I'm trtying to keep myself focused and continue my stretching and floor exercises at home including light weights, sit-ups etc, but not using any of the heavy weight. Larry

Hey, MrPH, I wanted to mention that what I disagreed with Willamona about on the "Easy Days" thread was just telling a person, "You can run 20 minutes straight if you go slowly enough." There is NO WAY I could have done that two years ago. I'm like the other poster - I was practically walking when I started out, and I couldn't even make it a quarter mile. I just don't want newbies to be discouraged if they can't run as far as Willamona says they should be able to. THAT is the good thing about C25K - you run only 90 seconds at the beginning. I remember thinking, "That's doable - I can stand pain for that length of time!" Even in C25K, I couldn't do it all - they have you jump from 8 minutes non-stop to 20 minutes, and I didn't have the fitness to do that. I went 8, 10, 12, etc., until I got to 20. Hope this makes sense.