always somethin' isn't it?

so the wisconsin weather has been pretty ridiculous as of late.  two weeks ago today (wednesday, december 28th) i ran trails at lapham peak with my friend dave.  the day before that particular run it warmed up so much that everything started melting and this turned the trail into a foot-printed pocky rock hard mess.  think i was running a lot on my toes because the next day my calves and achilles hurt SO BAD!

it was really challenging to run on and (turns out) even harder on my legs.   we ran the ice age trail from evergreen grove in lapham peak park out to highway 18 and back.  it is approximately 7.5 miles (give or take a point or two depending on the garmin).  it was slow going and difficult.

 strava data here

we still managed to have a pretty good time, but the run was a struggle in those conditions.  in fact... as of today i have not been back.

so i took the next day off due to the weird soreness in my legs.  i ran that following friday for 8mi and my calves were screaming.  i made the executive decision to take saturday off... partially because i was nervous about the pain in my legs and partially because my good friend anna was in town and we were going out.  going out = drinking and then there would be no way i would be running the next day.  i'm old, man!  i need to recover from such poisoning...

anna & i a couple hours into our night out on the town

so (as it turns out) i can still hang with the youngins... anna and i were out until bar time on friday night.  ugh... we closed the bar.  i rarely drink and i (even more) rarely go out.  suffice to say we had a good time.  so saturday i did literally NOTHING... i sat on my couch and watched hours and hours of television.  by sunday i felt better and ran.  i ran 12 miles sunday and while my legs felt better... my calves were still sort of painful.  mondays are my off days so no running, but this was the day i decided to accept crossfit back into my life.  *sigh*  i'm clearly a glutton for punishment.  i wrote about it in this previous post.

since crossfit basically showed me who's boss i ran a super short run on that tuesday and then (since i was sliding down my stairs on my butt due to pain) i did no more running last week.  i felt much better by thursday and i had also scheduled an appointment with my physical therapist for the calf issues... he needled my right calf so much that i was back to barely walking yet again.

i went back to crossfit on friday and felt great.  didn't run the rest of the weekend and was back at everything normally this week.  monday crossfit and saw the pt to needle my left calf, tuesday 3mi treadmill run, today crossfit and 5mi road run.  so far so good...

i'm (admittedly) a worry wart.  i am so afraid of getting hurt again before my race season begins.  i would rather be safe than sorry.  taking that week off of running did no harm and i'm no worse for the break.  i'm still having some residual discomfort in my right achilles, and left calf but it's not painful so i'm going to go with it.

i begin training for ice age mid-february and i really really want to be healthy and race ready.  i need to be careful of trails given the awful icy conditions and my cranky legs.

... and on that note i've got some questions for you guys:

how have you been making it through the winter and maintaining your training miles?

have you ever had dry needling done and if so... has it helped you?

what is your first race of the 2017 race season?  do you race in winter?