Just Call me "Gimpy"

It finally happened, nearly 5 months of training and I finally pushed things a wee bit too far.

Some people get knee pain, some back pain...me? It is always shin splints, guaranteed. They have been nagging for a few weeks but I was making sure to ice them when I got home from a run. Begin applying heat after 24 hours to help the muscle heal, and wearing a calf sleeve to help with compression when I ran.

Regardless, they rebelled and I am officially sidelined from running for at least a week. No idea why it got so bad, I had a nice easy run yesterday. 40 min on the treadmill (it was raining so I decided to make a temporary truce with my ex-fitness friend) at about a 12 min mile pace. I think it ended up being a little of 3.5 miles or so. This morning I was scheduled for a 2 hour run, approx 10 miles. I admit that I wasn't looking forward to it, mostly because I had missed my long run last week because I was out of town.

However, when I awoke the inside of my right calf was SO sore, and SO stiff, that I knew running was out of the question immediately. I had hopes of walking today, which is like running's cousin...close enough I thought. Points for at least trying to get a run like activity in today. That was until I actually put weight on that leg, and tried to walk down some stairs. Let's just say my family is calling me Gimpy, and I am out of commission until I heal.

On the upside, I am glad I ran yesterday and did the damage I did. Can you imagine how I would feel if I had ran 10 miles today? I probably would have done some sort of major damage.

Anyway, it is bad enough that I looked into my options for a refund for the triathlon I had scheduled in October. I am afraid I won't be able to get enough training in the next few weeks to make the competition anything less that torturous (I like to know my options). So far I know that the best I can do is defer until next year, and then compete then. We will see how it goes, I refuse to give in so easily to a sissy sort of injury. Today I have been mostly being grumpy and sulky. There isn't much room in my half marathon training for a week or more off, the more runs I miss, the harder those long runs will become. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

To be honest, I don't have a choice. Run and I can do damage that will last much longer than this calf pain. I read somewhere that resting and healing can be the hardest part of training as an athlete.

I sincerely believe it.