Injury Update

I've been injured since the middle of May. I was running along a trail when these ninja rabbits came out of the woods, started chasing me and throwing carrots at me. One carrot hit my calf really hard and caused it to cramp up. Those rabbits can throw those carrots really hard! Well...ok. So that's not really how it happened. It does sound a lot better than getting a massive cramp in your calf from rolling over in your sleep though, right?

I guess lucky (or unlucky) for me, I'm familiar with how to treat calf injuries. I had to change my training plan. There needed to be more focus on stretching and riding the bike and no running until I could walk without limping and without pain. I also made good use of my Tiger Tail stick to help roll out my calf to help it loosen up. The Tiger Tail stick was used by my physical therapist the last time I had a calf injury. Gotta keep using what works!

A couple weeks went by and I was starting to feel better. Definitely not 100%, but I was able to walk without limping and without pain. Here's where things went downhill though. I had the Bayshore half marathon coming up. This was a race I was really looking forward to, and I thought I'd be ok. Boy, was I wrong! The race didn't go as planned. Around mile 6 my calf started acting up again, so I wised up and didn't try to run through it. I knew there wasn't a way I could run through it for the next 7 miles. But I didn't want to quit the race and DNF though. I began the long 7 mile walk to the finish line. Eventually I did cross the finish line and got my finisher's medal.

After the race, I went into hardcore recovery and rehab mode for my calf. I knew I had to give it more time and more attention if I wanted it to heal and get back to running again. I got some calf sleeves from my local running store to help with the recovery. Instead of going to the gym and running on the treadmill before work, I started focusing on the bike again and was including more time for stretching, core work, balance work, and strength training. I would ease my way into including those activities during each morning at the gym.

I gave myself 3 weeks of dedicated time to focus on working my way back to walking without pain and without limping again. I had a few races planned during this time I didn't run. I had to do this the right way so I didn't re-injure myself again.

I'm feeling really confident at my approach for rehabbing my calf this time around. This is the last week of riding the bike at the gym instead of running. I will finish this week on the bike at the gym and try running again on Monday. It will be a slow process to get back into the swing of things with running. I just need to have patience and know with hard work I will be able to get back to kicking out those miles again.