Okay, so maybe you do.\u00a0 But after that I’ll get it; I swear!<\/p>\n
As I’ve been grumbling about for the past few weeks, my right calf has been giving me grief.\u00a0 It’s not the same top-of-the-calf pain I experienced while wearing the motion control\/stability shoes (I’ve since switched to a neutral pair, the Brooks Defyance), nor was it a case of shin splints.\u00a0 Rather, the pain was centered between my calf and shin on the inside of my leg.<\/p>\n
I’ve chalked it up to running too many damn miles with little recovery.\u00a0 It certainly helped to take a week off after Skagit Flats, but I could still feel twinges of pain during my runs since (that’s one of the things that contributed to last week’s tears).\u00a0 I’ve stretched, I’ve sticked, I’ve foam rollered, I’ve self-massaged, I’ve had my darling massage the spot — all to no avail.<\/p>\n
But then it dawned on me.\u00a0 Could it once again be my shoes?<\/p>\n
I consulted my training log to see how many miles each pair had racked up.\u00a0 I wasn’t surprised to see the first pair had 500 miles on them, but was a bit shocked to see the second pair was pushing 450.\u00a0 I’ve had a pair on order from Brooks since the end of August (I had received a 40% discount card at Hood-to-Coast), but the company is in the midst of a software upgrade and they’re experiencing longer-than-normal delivery delays.\u00a0 So off to my running store I go.<\/p>\n
Not wanting to mess with a good thing, I had the clerk grab another pair of size 10 Defyances (hey — don’t laugh.\u00a0 I’m a tall girl, ya know).\u00a0 After inspecting my insoles she also recommended I replace those, as they had about 950 miles on them (although she recommended I wear my old insoles in my new shoes for a couple of runs to make sure the shoes were still a good fit).<\/p>\n
I laced up my new shoes for an early morning run and headed out the door.\u00a0 I could tell the difference from the get-go — no calf pain!\u00a0 There was just a tad bit of residual achyness as I ran downhill, but it was nothing compared to what I have been dealing with.\u00a0 I was able to run 10 1\/2 in relative comfort (I cut my scheduled 12-mile run short as I was meeting my sister for lunch).<\/p>\n
Who says blondes don’t catch on?<\/p>\n