Injury Update

On Thursday, four days after injuring my calf running on the beach, I went to a sports medicine doctor. The news was pretty good. He said that I have a slight tear of the lateral left calf muscle, but that it should heal on its own. I am not likely to make it worse by running, although it would be painful right now. He suggested continuing to rest and ice it, and then when the pain is less try getting back into running slowly. Start with a half mile, and it that feels OK, do a mile the next day, two the next, and so forth. He said that I could run the race in Seattle but that if it is still painful by then, I would have to make the decision of whether the price of the pain would be something I want to pay to do the race.

That night, I ran a tiny bit. We got home late from a play in a terrible, drenching storm, and our neighbor’s trash can had blown over. The lid had blown way down the street. Her husband is having a ton of medical issues right now, and she doesn’t need any more stress. So I ran over in the rain to right the can and find the lid. Even though it was just a few hundred feet and I was going really slow, it definitely hurt.

On the plus side, I can walk almost at my normal pace without a lot of pain, unless I have to adjust quickly to an uneven spot or something like that. I walked ¾ mile yesterday. So at the least I can increase that. It has now been a week since the injury, and everything I see tells me to give it two weeks to heal. But it seems like some walking would be a good idea.

On the down side, I seem to have another cold / sore throat, and feel pretty lousy today. Hard to believe, after just getting over a tough one.