Eat Drink Run Woman

It was bound to happen. I’ve been too cocky. I’ve crowed about how fast I’ve been. I obviously did not leave an offering to the running gods.

I have a calf sprain.

How can this be? I’ve been stretching (most of the time). I’ve been doing my PT exercises (many of them, anyway). I even took an extra day of rest this week. But about five miles into Saturday’s 20-mile run my left calf started tightening up. I should have stopped to stretch earlier, but I was determined to keep going. Ironically I was forcing myself to slow WAY down since I was concerned I was over-training. I was determined to keep my heart rate at 70% of my maximum during the first 10 miles (which was about a 10:30-10:40 pace); I’d then allow myself to speed up to 80% of my maximum (about a 10:10-10:20 pace).

I finally stopped at the 10 mile mark to take in some ShotBlocks and water and stretch my calves and hamstrings. That helped at first but soon the tightness returned. Just before mile 16 I stopped at my gym for a potty break, but I also spent several seconds with the calf stretcher (in hindsight I should have also used a foam roller). By mile 18 I was really feeling the pain, but I refused to walk.

When my darling saw me hobbling up our stairs he knew he’d be conscripted into service. I winced in pain as he massaged my tender calf; although it truly helped, I still have a bit of tenderness today. I’m hoping a day of RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) will help, as I’m just 5 miles from hitting the 200-mile mark for the month (I KNEW I shouldn’t have taken that rest day on Friday!). However, I have to follow the same advice I gave my darling when he rolled his ankle earlier in the week — if it still hurts, DON’T RUN!

Here’s the recap:

Sunday: the food & drink orgy that is Easter. Thankfully it was a high mileage week as I had to work off this.

Monday: my alarm went off far too early, so I decided to sleep in. However, knowing my cook date would be much quicker today, I decided to run my 12-miler instead of the scheduled 6-mile speed work. My darling joined me, but two miles into the run he rolled his ankle. As I saw him writhing on the ground I thought he said he had broken it, but fortunately it was just a sprain. Still, he was in intense pain. I offered to run back home for the car, but after walking several yards he determined he could hobble back home. I didn’t want to leave him, but he assured me he’d be okay. I couldn’t get his pained expression out of my mind, and I almost broke down in tears several times during my run. (The jury is still out about his ankle; it’s still quite sore almost a week later, so he may have a slight fracture).

Tuesday: our yoga instructor was out so I spent the morning doing my stretching and PT exercises. My 6-mile afternoon speed work turned into a 7-mile run as I had to pay up on a promise. Rather than doing strideouts on a measured track I ran some fartlek intervals for a couple of miles. I ran the first fartlek mile in 8:34, and the second in 8:25; my overall average pace for the 7 miles was 9:04.

Wednesday: arms, abs, stretching and PT. Rest day from running!

Thursday: more PT and stretching in the morning, 11-mile run in the afternoon (9:24 average pace).

Friday: self-imposed rest day — no gym, no running, no nothin’ (although if I had run my 5-mile recovery run, I could boast a 200-mile month. D’oh!)

Saturday: 20 miles, 10:19 overall pace, one freakin’ sore calf.

Here’s keeping my fingers crossed that I’m healed tomorrow!