Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tuesday's Workout Brought Calf Pain

Irony Alert:  We never stretch our calves during warmups.  On Tuesday, we stretched our calves.  On Tuesday, I hurt one of my calves.

Tuesday's workout was 2 sets of 4 x 600 @ slightly faster than 5k pace.  I ran the first set with no problems.

2:25, 2:30, 2:23, 2:25

The second set was going great.  2:28 on the first rep.  On the second rep, I was on pace all the way through the 400 and as I was coming down the last straightaway, I could hear someone just bearing down on me.  Breathing.  Footsteps.  So I turned around mid-stride to see if the person was going around.  I moved into the second lane to make way and as I stepped through with my left leg, something pulled in my left calf.  Just enough to warrant stopping.  It was the kind of muscle pain that you know to stop and rest it.  So I didn't even try to jog it off.

It is Thursday now.  Yesterday, it was very sore and there was a little pain going into my Achilles.  Today only hurt when I used stairs, but walking on flat ground didn't hurt.  It's still sore.  I will rest it tomorrow as well.  We'll see for Saturday.

7 comments:

The Green Girl said...

Oh no! Heal up quickly.

Alan Dent said...

Take care - hope you are back running quickly

Cynthia said...

I hate injuries :(
Hope you feel better soon!
You are speedy!!

mjcaron said...

You should never move to the outside lane when you are in the middle of your interval no matter what your speed is. Doesn't matter if someone behind you is faster. The person behind you is assuming they will pass you on the right not the left. :) Track rules. Hope your calf gets well soon. :)

Erika said...

hope you're feeling better soon!

Doug said...

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I thought my calf was healed after just a couple days and I tried running last Sunday. I ran 4 miles and my calf hurt more afterward and it was going down further into my Achilles Tendon. I decided that it was better to take a full week off, so my first run will be Tuesday afternoon.

Melissa, I was always taught that the fastest runners get priority to the inside. The protocol is that the runner beginning to lap another runner should yell, "TRACK!" to allow the other runners the opportunity to move to an outer lane. Maybe this is only during competition though.

2 Slow 4 Boston said...

Although your injury was probably caused by switching lanes, I've observed stretching works a lot better when I do it after my workout. IMHO