6 miles, AP 8:18. (3 miles easy, 3 miles harder) ********************************* SMO TOOK FIRST IN HER CROSS COUNTRY MEET TODAY (3K)! NO OFFICIAL RESULTS YET ON HER TIME. THE NEXT GIRL WAS OVER A MINUTE BEHIND! SHE KILLED IT!!! :) :) :) ********************************* THINKING OUT LOUD FOR TO HAVE THIS ON RECORD: This whole calf thing is frustrating me to no end. The pain is so variable. One day it hurts horribly right in the medial belly of the gastroc, then another day it will feel more soleus in nature, then the next thing you know it feels like it is posterior tibialis and then the another day it will feel like tibial periostitis or maybe even the beginning of a stress reaction leading to stress fracture. Most days it is a combination of a couple of these things. AGGRAVATING AND ALLEVIATING FACTORS AGGRAVATING: - The morning after a hard run. - After sitting for a long time. - Too much stretching and/or soft tissue mobilization - Ice -- this is a weird one, it sometimes alleviates sometimes aggravates - Walking downstairs more that upstairs ALLEVIATES: - When the muscles/tissue/fascia are warm (i.e., more pain in the beginning of a run versus the middle and the end) -- but the pain never completely goes away, just gets less intense - Ibuprofen (alleviates, never completely goes away) - Prednisone (I had an allergic reaction to the Tide pods while we were in California. I broke out in a rash that covered my body. Was put on 3 days of prednisone. My calf pain was significantly less while I was on it.) - Ice -- (sometimes alleviates, sometimes aggravates) - Sleeping in a strassburg sock but only places at neutral DF/PF ... more than that is problematic - Iontophoresis with dexamethasone (not sure if this alleviated anything or not to be honest, but tried it) THOUGHTS: It seems like pain is the worse when the calf musculature is involved in an eccentric contraction. Also, it seems that if I mess with it too much via soft tissue mobilization or too much stretching that it worsens things. I can't help but wonder if I have damaged some peripheral nerves. The fact that ibuprofen and prednisone help suggests that inflammation is a problem. The problem is that ibuprofen has been aggravating my asthma and stomach and so I haven't been taking it. Whether it was the allergic reaction in Cali, lack of sleep, increased stress or something else, my body has been extremely sensitive to things that it does not like. Blah blah blah -- I'm probably just getting old. :) I know an MRI would help be figure out exactly what is wrong but I don't want to put the money into it. I am confident that if I were willing to take off more than 5 days at a time that my body would heal. The problem is that SGM is just around the corner and I want to run it. Ugggh ... Not illiciting advise to or not to run. Just wanted to put signs and symptoms in black and white for my future reference. What caused all this? I think it was the all the sprints I was running with Sherm during the summer and then not taking a week off when the symptoms first appeared. I have been running on the red line. Something us runners tend to do. If Ry were not running SGM it would have been much easier for me to take sufficient time off. My always wanting to show off for that boy may be the death of me yet. :) :) :) The good thing is though I am frustrated, I am not sad. Working with individuals with spinal cord injuries, strokes, traumatic brain injuries and amputations has completely transformed who I am and how I think. I am grateful for that. :) | 
