What a weekend. I can’t believe how antsy I feel. Usually Sundays are spent in a happy, restful haze of exhaustion and satisfaction from a good week of effort and a solid Saturday run. Yesterday was the first Saturday spent without significant physical activity in at least a year, last was probably the family trip to So Cal a year ago, and I can’t remember how long it has been that an easy Saturday didn’t occur on vacation. I got out for a nice slow hike on Saturday, but wasn’t work by any means. Some solid work in the yard took the edge off but has still left me with a weird combination of nervous energy and laziness. Not really the taper I wanted going into my big race.
The culprit at the bottom of all of the inactivity is my knee/calf issue that flared up with a vengeance last Monday on my hard effort on Malan’s Peak. I have noticed that my knee has been aching in direct proportion to the strain/pain I have in my calf. The knee came first, which I’m sure led to a favored stride which led to the calf, which in turn affects my knee. It was bad enough on Wednesday that when I attempted to trot with my 10 year old across the infield at his track meet (he’s making papa proud as a member of the Ogden City Track Club!) I couldn’t put two strides together without very sharp pain. I went for a good ride on my road bike Tuesday and even that hurt my knee to push it hard.
If you’d asked me Wednesday night, I would have said Squaw Peak was out. Slowly things are feeling better. I have made a self diagnosis that would make a witch doctor proud and come to the conclusion that my tight calf is pulling my lower leg slightly out of alignment (recent MCL strain from a ski injury has given me an abnormal degree of lateral movement ) and causing my knee to track poorly in the joint?? Like ITB knee issues but in the lower leg?? Deep, solid massage seems to take the edge off of both the knee and calf.
Bottom line is it is frustrating that going into my focus race of the spring I may not make it to the starting line. The only race I have really felt solid going into this year was Buffalo Run 50. Red Hot was fresh off the ski injury; Ogden Marathon was run with this new calf strain. I have an appointment with the Orthopedic on Thursday, if he says I’m not going to cripple myself by doing Squaw I think I’ll still give it a go, pain allowing.
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