I ran 7 miles yesterday evening - this time a little faster, around 8:15 minutes per mile on average so a half-decent pace. It felt amazing to do one of the miles at sub 8-minute miling - for me, this is when I begin to feel like I am actually running; I feel my body just beginning to adjust to the additional effort, I feel my breathing slightly increasing its work to bring in more oxygen, I feel the natural chemicals releasing into my brain and body to deal with the new effort. Eight minute miling seems like some sort of threshold for me - I am much more in my element at that speed or faster. Sadly, my enthusiasm to be back at that level of running stupidly outweighed the more rational part of me which suggests I should keep going slow while the injury mends, and around the 5 mile mark I got an ache in the soleus, and a newer ache in a higher part of the same calf, both of which increased throughout the final 2 miles of the 7 mile run. Again, I slowed a bit but should have slowed more or even stopped as the ache was quite forceful. I iced the calf and used anti-inflammatory cream, and whilst the soleus seems fine this morning the higher part of the calf is still sore. This has told me that, at least for the moment, I should really be at 8:30 miles at fastest, and to be safe probably more like 9:00-9:30 minute miles, whilst the muscle continues to mend and strengthen, so at least I've learnt something. I suppose I nudged at the limits of what the muscle is capable of last night and hopefully haven't caused additional damage...will find out over the coming days.
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