Pushed the leg a little more by going a trifle faster and put in a little more than 2 miles. No pain yet.
The plan is to give it a rest tomorrow and then try with the new shoes again. If the pain comes back, then we will know it has something to do with the shoe…

Somewhat emboldened by the one mile run yesterday and day before, tried to stretch myself and did a two mile run today. Still kept the run slow. Was able to finish out without the calf muscle pain coming back.

I have to isolate the cause for the original injury – whether it was the quick buildup of miles in September or the new shoe I was trying. (For now, I am using an old pair of shoes).

To test out how much the calf has recovered, I gingerly put in a mile of very slow run. In fact, it was split into two runs of half mile each with two more miles of walk. The good news is that the leg held up fine. Did quite some stretching after that to take no chances…

Here is to hoping the long road to recovery has started…

Since I cannot run with the calf injury still nagging me, went for a walk instead. In about half a mile, I face a choice of wading thru really muddy waters or turning back and doing a pendulum-esque simple harmonic motion between the starting point and water’s edge till I reached three miles. Pendulum it was!!

Today was just one mile. The calf hurt enough that I had to walk back. More like limp back. I can’t believe this one is giving me so much trouble. Usually I am able to get rid of most running injuries with a couple of weeks’ rest. This one is on its sixth week now…

Got into trouble after 2.5 miles. It has been 5 weeks and the calf muscle problems refuse to go away. How old am I getting?

The last time I ran was exactly three weeks back. Turned out that run was also with these two – Molly and Bill. You may remember, I busted my calf.

After a painful recovery period – about a couple of days back, I realized that the pain had subsided. Gave it a shot for a couple of miles with the dup this morning. Towards the end, the calf started straining again. I stopped at that point. Bill continued for another few miles and I think Molly is geared up for a 15 mile run today.

The good news is that my calf muscle is letting me run again. I might have to take it easy for a few more weeks though.

The last time we ran together was over four years back. Bill put in 10 miles, I put in 14 miles and Molly put in 30 miles that day! And my legs hurt.

Compare that to today. All three of us ran 4.5 miles. I bust my left calf muscle. Had to drag myself the rest of the day. And Molly is getting ready for her “Oh-thirty-plus”th marathon/ultamarathon in under a month and half.

It was great fun to catch up with Bill and Molly. They always have funny stories. Also, Molly still has the habit of wishing Good Morning to any runner/walker who passes by…

Put in a 4 mile run in the cold but sunny morning. That keeps the word I had given Siva Iyer that I will bump up Sep distance by 10% over Aug. Finished 110K this month. Without that push from Siva, I do not think I would have stayed this focused…

This is what I get for being lazy for a week. Had to put in a run today and I still have another 5K to go tomorrow – the last day of the month – to meet my this month’s target. It was raining and a little cold (58 deg F). Nobody was there in the trail. There is a different beauty to a desolate trail in the forests with the constant pitter patter noise of the rain. There were two deer that was looking for food and did not even budge as I ran past them within a couple of feet.