I trashed my right achilles in early November - in the middle a hard repeat set of 800s during our Jim Spivey Running Club workout I came up with a sore achilles and left hip and pulled off the track. Later I figured out that a large amount yard work the weekend before had thrown me out of whack and then running a hard 13 miler in this condition had really screwed me up.

Ever since then, my workouts have been spotty. I managed to run the Florence (Italy) Marathon at the end of November, with not a great time (but the race was a lot of fun). Since then, I have cut back (also because work has become very demanding). For example, my hours the last four weeks up until this week have been 3.52 hours, 1:35 hours, 7:06 hours and 2:39 hours.

Finally I am running without achilles pain and my stride is back to normal. And my speed is coming back, as well. I capped off a decent week today with 11.5 miles on our hilly Morton Arboretum road course. I ran much of the course with a younger runner who is well matched with me in terms of time and is Boston training. Her coach had written that she needed to pick up the long run for the last 2.5 miles. We got it on - egging each other up in speed, I gaining on the hills and she on the flats. My HR bumped up from the 140s to the 160s, 10k race pace. Finally for the final quarter mile, a flat stretch, I decided to open it up all the way to see what I could do. She tried to match me but I pulled ahead and held it to the cool-down point. Now that was fun!

Afterward I rode on my trainer for 1:15 and watched all five of the Ironman Canada videos I have. An inspiring recovery exercise! And my achilles is feeling fine.

All told, I logged just under 9 hours this week, including 31.5 miles running in five running workouts (plus three bike workouts and one masters swimming workout). It's good to get back in the groove.