Track with ZERO slack

I guess track was so tough today because it's our last one before our big bad 20 mile long run pre race day. Coach Al told us not to worry about the hills on the Nike Preview run (oh, this run is staged for the race course, not exactly but really similar) and then he laughed and rubbed his hands together saying "not after today at least." He was kidding...only not. We ran hill repeats (no drills, only hills this time) in loops like we usually do, only he upped the sets and added in the unthinkable hill, the one my car literally putts up when I park for track. It's the hill that when you walk it to your car, you lean your whole body into a huge lunge to just sclep your body at a walking pace up the damn thing. Yes, he said we must add this hill to our rounds today. Let's just say that I did it of course, but at the expense of my poor right soleus. It worked so hard to get me up that last monster hill of each set that I actually strained the little sucker. For the rest of the day I massaged and iced it. It took a couple of days but was back to good after stretching and massage before the next big run. So this weekend is a run on our own. Next weeked is the big kahuna, well the big nike preview at least.