So, what’s it gonna be Denis? Are you hurt or are you injured?
The clip below was playing in my head over and over today while on my run.
Some of you already know that I blew off Tuesday’s scheduled 3 miler because I developed some lower left calf swelling and tenderness during last weekend’s 18 mile run. I’ve been resting the leg as much as possible and wearing my compression socks from breakfast to bedtime. It finally started to feel better yesterday. I pushed my scheduled 7 miler from yesterday to today to give it an extra day to rest.
When I started running this morning I was encouraged. I ran without a twinge of pain for the first 4 miles….and then it started acting up. I had to stop a few times during the run to stretch out the calf muscle. The pain is somewhat lower today and is at what I would describe as the very top of my achilles tendon, where it first emerges from the muscle before inserting on the calcaneus.
I have my big 20 miler coming up on Sunday, so for the rest of today and all day tomorrow, it’ll be NSAIDS, rest, ice, compression socks, and elevation. If it’s just hurt, no big deal. I can run through it, and the pain is not severe enough to significantly alter my stride. However, if it’s the beginning of a real injury, I’ll freak out. My marathon is just 23 days away.
Wish me luck.
Consider skipping this weekend’s 20 miler. It could make the difference between whether you’re able to do the marathon or not. If you’ve done all the other training, then this weekend’s long run isn’t necessary to complete the race. But if you do the 20-miler and your leg gets worse…not good.
Are you massaging the calf at all? Is it knotted or torn?
Take care. I hope you recover swiftly.
I’ll cross my fingers for you!!!
Ditto what Sheila said…I have been experiencing the same thing this week and tried to deny that anything was wrong and run through it…bad move, as it got worse, and with my 50k 7 days away, I have been RICE’ing my leg hardcore! My plan is to cross train the rest of the week and fit in a couple of miles in between, at this point you have to rely on your training and play it safe.
@Joanna - Thanks. I’ll need it.
@Sheila and John - I’m on the same page as you now. Between this blog, twitter, and dailymile I’ve had no fewer than 6 people gently remind me that I’m being an idiot. If I was at work, I’d be dispensing the same advice that you all are, so why am I ignoring it myself?
Well, now I’m taking a dose of my own medicine. I’m RICE’ing and NSAIDing. I already decided to skip my 20 tomorrow. If I couldn’t do 7 yesterday without stopping twice because of the pain what would make me think 20 would be OK?
I tried explaining to Chrisitine B. on dm that I’ve been trying to push it because my marathon predictor time calculator has consistently put me at JUST BARELY over my Boston Qualifying time. I figured if I trained hard for the last 6 weeks I’d be able to nudge the time down and BQ this year. I guess driving towards that goal is causing me to have momentary lapses in judgement.
I’ll play it safe and have a good marathon, instead of missing it trying to have a great marathon. Thanks for the feedback guys.