Topography 101

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but holy moley, Atlanta is HILLY! There is practically no level ground here at all--you're constantly going up and down. At past Christmas visits, I walked my dog(s) without ever giving the terrain much thought, but now that I am running here, I have a whole new respect for the landscape. After missing my 3-miler on Sunday (I was in a car for 12 hours, which is kind of an impediment to getting your run in), I was eager to get out for my 2-miler on Tuesday. The weather was fantastic--blue skies and temperatures near 60--so I was able to run in just a short-sleeve tech shirt and shorts. I put on my latest new shoes, a pair of Asics GT-2150s with insoles bought during the feeding frenzy on Saturday, and took them out for their maiden run around my parents' subdivision (helpfully mapped out in advance with gmaps pedometer).

The run felt--well, pretty rough, actually. (No fault of the shoes, they felt great.) I ran a lackluster 11:27 pace and was breathing a bit harder than I care to on a "conversational" run.

But the real fun came when I got up this morning:
Me: All right, let's get up and get this day star--
Calves: Ow! PAAAAIIIIN! Owie owie owww!
Me: What are you two whining about?
Calves: You live in a place where people go skiing on a 300-foot-high hill, and then you run us up and down, like, FIVE of those things in half an hour? What were you THINKING?
Me: It was a 2-miler, for God's sake! We spent almost as much time warming up and cooling down as we did running!
Calves: We weren't ready! We really would have appreciated you asking us first...
Me: All right, all right, I'm sorry. Now cut it out with the pain already!
Calves: No way, bub! We are ON STRIKE. Better treatment of calves everywhere! No more abuse!
Me: You can't do that! We have to do another 2-miler today! I can't run with no calf muscles!
Calves: Watch us! Oooooooww! Just for that, we're going to complain every time you go up or down the stairs.
Me: Oh, sure, you talk a good game, but I forget you'll have forgotten all about it by this afternoon...

But they didn't. My calves are still hurting quite a bit. So I didn't run my 2 miles today. It just didn't seem wise. However, even I have to run/walk, I WILL get my 2 miles in tomorrow. *shakes fist* So there, calves!