Tuesday afternoon
3.21 mi / 5.17 km running
1.27 mi walking
24 F / -4.5 C
14 F / -10 C windchill
Set out in my Neo Trails, although a lot of the snow on the sidewalks and along the fairgrounds roads had been cleared or shovelled/plowed down to a thin, compacted covering. I kind of surprised myself with a 9mm pace for a good part of the run, my first meso run in a while. My lungs were pretty happy with the moderate temps so hopefully the flu-bug thing is behind me. Good to hear HappyBirdSong and Chris are just about over theirs as well.
I stretched after 1.3 miles at my stretching pillar in the fairgrounds, and then set off on my 1.7 fairgrounds loop. Just before the spot where they had the snow sculptures (sorry Willie, no pics--it was either too cold last week or our son too sick to take the fam to go see them) I moved over towards the snow bank on the side of the road to get out of the way of an oncoming car. Just there I hit some black ice and had my first wipe-out of the season. I'm pretty sure if I had been bare it wouldn't have happened. Anyway, I got back up on my feet in the same motion and continued on with my run but noticed I had pulled a muscle in my right thigh slightly while unsuccessfully trying to recover my balance. It didn't seem to bother my running however, so I continued on at a slightly slower pace. I was still close to my threshold at about 9:20 mm pace. It was nice to be having a good tempo run instead of doing fartleks or an LS run.
Then, just as I had left the fairgrounds and was heading back into the neighborhood to pick up my daughter at Discovery Club, my right calf muscle seized up on me. WTF? I tried to stretch it out a bit, but nothing doing, I was done for the day running-wise, and so walked the remaining half mile to the school with a mild limp. I don't know if the cramp is related to the pulled muscle in the thigh, or if perhaps it was caused by running in the Neo Trails on mostly clear surfaces, which probably affected my gait/foot-landing. Or maybe it was lack of sleep. I had only slept about four hours the night before, and I've just read that lack of sleep, dehydration, or electrolyte imbalances can lead to cramps. Maybe it was a combination of all these factors plus the fact that I was pushing the pace a bit after several weeks of easy running.
Anyway, I'm not too worried about it. In fact, it's kind of a relief to have to deal with a pure muscle issue instead of a joint/tendon issue, and it's also nice to have it on my right side instead of the more problematic left side. Also, no ITB symptoms whatsoever, so perhaps the consecutive day micro/mini runs are helping. Or perhaps it was just the flu-induced break from longer runs.
Don't know if I'll be able to do my micro run today. Any advice on how to treat this? Do I ice it or heat it? Should I stretch it or just massage and rest it? I've already ordered a ProTec Calf Sleeve. It mostly just hurts descending stairs. I've never dealt with this kind of thing before, although I have to laugh at myself once again. I thought perhaps my injury-prone ways were behind me, but I see the curse is still in effect. Perhaps I'll only be in the clear once my bfr twin Nick is as well.
