I went out for our weekly Wednesday hill run last week. We have started doing a 12 mile double loop which adds more hills and basically eliminates the warm up and cood down. On the second loop, I really put the hammer down and was having a big time surging up the ascents with Steve Phiffner (one of the fastest guys I know). On the last surge up Flagpole Hill, I was really going for it and at the top of the hill, my calf tweaked. I stopped immediately and did not try to run any further.
I have not felt this calf pain since last year. I lived with it most of the year last year and I hate it because although I can run through it, it puts a governer on my speed and I generally cannot go faster than a 7 min pace.
This sucks because I have been healthy since the new year and I was trying hard to keep it that way. I took Thursday off and ran a really slow 9 mile loop on Friday. It did not hurt too bad on Friday, but I took Saturday off as well and did Chest and Back.
Today I took it out for a real test drive. I started at 5AM and went almost 22 miles. About 10 of those were sub 8s and 6 were sub 7:30s. My calf was sore (read dull pain), but not tweaky. I was listening really closely and never let it get close.
Chris Strait gave me a pair of compression socks and I have been wearing them all day and I can tell a huge difference in recovery.
When something like this happens, you have three choices:
1. Be stupid and keep running too hard and get really injured. I did that last year.
2. Stop running and let it rest, but risk loosing some fitness. This is a bad idea 4 weeks out from the Marathon.
3. Keep running, but stretch like crazy (yoga), eat lots of protien, and listen very closely and keep the speed well within the safety zone.
I am trying #3 and so far so good. We will see how things play out with hills, and a little more speed work this week.
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