Busy day today I had to hurry up to SLC after the morning run to go to a work-related conference, so haven't had a chance to log the run until now.
Ran in the morning due to SLC work stuff. Turned into possibly major bummer race season-ending run. Actually the run was great up until the moment I felt my left upper calf seize up on me.
Up to that point I had done my planned workout - 4 miles easy then 5 x 3min hill repeats @ around MP but 5K effort with the uphill factor, in between reps jog easy back down hill. I felt really good doing the repeats, felt like all the hills I've been running recenly and especially the steep hill sprints have given me more power with my usually weak uphill gear.
Split info (distance/pace): .41/7:24, .42/7:15, .42/7:13, .42/7:10, .41/7:10
But then on the dang very last repeat about 5 seconds from finishing I felt the grab in my calf and knew something not good had happened. Tried stretching, massaging to loosen it up so I could jog home but I could never get it to feel very good. It's been bothering me most the day and it didn't help to have to be on my feet much of the day in at the conference in not-so-comfy dress shoes talking to customers.
Tonight I've been doing all the R-I-C-E stuff. I'm pretty good at the I-C-E but lousy when it comes to the 'R'. But I have vowed to do things right in regards to this injury and let it heal up properly. I'll attempt some cross-train to see if anything works without aggravating the injury, eliptical seems like the best bet (swimming is not an option for me).
For future reference I want to review everything I think I did wrong to lead to this apparent injury. I ran a 9K race on the 13th. I am aware of the rule-of-thumb that says 1 easy/rest day per mile-of-the race in the days after the race, and had actually planned that into my next week, but I messed up the following Monday because I felt better than usual after a race and I ran faster than I should have when I ran with Nate. So that's Mistake #1. Mistake #2 was doing the steep hill sprints on Wednesday since that is when I first noticed the "twinge" in the calf. Mistake #3 was doing another hard uphill workout today.
So there it is. I'll try the crosstrain tomorrow or the next day and see how that goes. No plans for running until I can do a 45-min walk or XT workout without any pain.
This is probably as good a time as any to do this. I've had a little bout of PF going as well (I get this about every 2-3 years) so this will give me a chance to nip that one in the bud as well.
8:10 | 