Greetings from Santa Barbara!

Thursday -
8 mi (AM) 59:30
3 mi + gym (PM)

Friday -
Began running...achilles issues....ended up on the elliptical for an hour

Saturday - Off

I"m currently chilling in a hotel room in Santa Barbara for a weekend away with my Mom for her b'day, which is great. The not so great part is that my left achilles is presently on ice. On my double thursday night I felt a bit of a twinge in the achilles, but kinda just blew it off and hit up the gym, focusing on core and trying to lay off anything that might tweak the achilles. Unfortunately friday I got the sharp pains that I had a couple weeks before. The one thing I learned from THAT wonderful experience was that if things in that area hurt the only thing to do is take time off till the pain goes away. I think it's just a mild strain, possibly as a result of tight calves from H2C or any number of things I did over the week, but regardless it's one of those things that, unlike tendonitis which you can kinda grin and bear if need be, its a sharp pain that makes me suck in a deep breath and it just FEELS like something is getting worse with every step.

So normally, not a huge deal...a day or more off and then things are back to normal. I can even bike or hit up the elliptical and things tend to be fine. UNFORTUNATELY I had just sent out an email to my team the night before saying that I can totally run in the race this weekend so we'd be able to field a full team. I felt like such an idiot emailing only 12 hours later to be like, just kidding! Achilles is jacked up. I felt uber guilty about it all morning...but then as my mom and I were walking to lunch and the sharp pain resurfaced I knew that there was no way I could have even tried to race, especially given the hilly terrain of the course. And while the logical part of me knows that I physically could not have competed, the teammate in me is so frustrated that I wasn't able to be there for my team when they needed me to race.

Sorry. Massive vent session right there. Hoping to be able to give it a go tomorrow. Haven't had any sharp pains since early this afternoon, and it possibly could have been from the 5 hour train ride followed by walking around. Hopefully icing tonight + IB proferin + some sleep tonight will have me up in the morning and good to go for a joggy jog. Probably not going to be able to do my full long run...which pisses me off, but if I could at least get through 8 pain free it'd be a move in the right direction. The good thing is I know exactly what this is and I know its not a big deal...but it's a little scary that it can just strike at any time and incapacitate me. Hopefully it's just from a lack of stretching after H2C. Either that or drills in the sand. That's a possibility. I'll probably avoid the drills for awhile or at least find some grass or harder sand. Ok...massive rambling now. Off to bed. Wish me luck in the a.m.

OH! And good luck to everyone running the Disney Half tomorrow! :-D And good job to everyone that ran the Balboa 4-miler today. Wish I could have been there!