Highs and Lows

I had the best run last week. I knew I should have posted about it right away. It was last Wednesday. I was scheduled to do an 8 mile run with 6 miles at an 8:27 pace. I decided to run an 8:40 just to mentally prepare myself for the race. Here's what I did: 1 mile warm-up/ 2 miles at 8:40, 1 mile at 8:32/ 1 mile at 8:27/ 1 mile at 8:32/ 1 mile starting at 8:32 but moving as fast as 8:20/ 1 mile cool-down.

I felt great afterwards! I was really encouraged that I'm ready for this race and able to meet my goal of running an 8:40 pace.

Now for the low..... my left calf started hurting on Thursday. I figured it was just from the hard workout. It felt like there was a knot in it. I massaged it and stretched it. It was still sore on Friday. Yesterday I ran 11 miles. I could feel the tightness right from the start but ran slow and steady. My calf cramped around mile 8- kind of like a charlie horse. Sort of like a burning sensation shooting up my leg. It only lasted a few seconds. I was able to run through it. It happened 2 more times. By the time I was done, I was very tired. I avereaged a 10 minute pace. When I got home I took a shower and then put Body Glide heat on it. I noticed a huge bruise on my calf. It doesn't really hurt when I touch it. I don't know if it was there before the run, or if the run caused it.

I'm somewhat panicking. I researched a little on line and I think I might have compartmental syndrome. Apparently it takes forever to get an accurate diagnosis. Well, I don't have forever! My race is a week from today and now I'm afraid I won't even be able to finish. I figure if my calf starts cramping around 8 miles, I've got 5 miles to deal with the pain. I'm not really that worried about the pain, I'm worried about the damage I might be doing to myself. If the run caused the bruising, what in the world is causing it?

Right now I figure all I can do is take the week completely off. I'm going to do deep tissue massage, take anti-inflamatiory drugs, eat bananas and start stretching in a few days. (oh yeah- and PRAY!) I'm okay with not finishing well, I'm just concerned about the long term damage.