Injury strategy 101

I don’t know if I’m being a wimp, overly cautious or smart as elephants, but whatever it is, it’s driving me bloody crazy.

During last week’s rainy tempo run (the last five minutes!!!) I felt a bit of irritation in my calf muscle; the defined-looking area located between the calf and the shin when you look profile. (Google Doctoring tells me it’s the soleus muscle.) At first I thought it was just a bit of tightness, no biggie. I’d roll it out and all would be good.

But no, it seems my leg had other plans. The three-minute massage with the stick resulted in a tender bruised sensation. And on Saturday, when I went out for a run, as soon as I pushed off I felt the throbbing 34 seconds in. Sigh. I quit the run then and there, grimacing at the lost opportunity for a run in the sun, a lost opportunity for introducing Little Ring to my old running stomping grounds, a lost opportunity for advancing my training one run further.

But, better safe than sorry, I told myself, recalling all my physio and massage therapy bills of past. I did NOT want to go there. So no, I would not run that day, or the entire week for that matter. We are now on Day 6, and I am going crazy.

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I’ve rested. I’ve iced. I’ve compressed. I’ve elevated.

I told myself one week and then I would reassess the situation. Tomorrow is one week.

My assessment: For the first three quarters of this week that tender feeling was going nowhere no matter how much I RICEd the hell out of it. But yesterday morning, when I woke up I rubbed the area in question and nothing. I rubbed again, nothing. Couple hours later, I rubbed again, nothing. Today, I’ve rubbed it randomly as the hours past and not one twinge of tenderness. Good sign, yes indeed. Fingers crossed, I should be good to go tomorrow 😀

Like I said, I don’t know if I was being paranoid, silly or smart as hell, but with my injury history, at this point in my comeback, I was not prepared to take any chances.

In other news: Did you know it’s national grilled cheese sandwich day today? And did you know grilled cheese just so happens to be my number 1, all time favourite lunch cuisine? You better believe I was eating me some grilled cheese (with tomato, grilled to melty perfection!) on national grilled cheese sandwich day!

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How do you eat your grilled cheese?

7 thoughts on “Injury strategy 101”

  1. I am at least a nine on what you’d call the injury “paranoid” scale. I notice every little tweak and creak. I’d rather take a week off than 3 months anytime! Smart move in my opinion. 🙂

  2. My grandmother made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever! She would smother the bread with butter and not one or even two slices of cheese but three! But I think that her secret ingredient was love. Yes, she made it with love and for that I am forever grateful.
    As for the decision to rest, I think it was the right decision also. It’s hard sometimes to take a stepback but as Kobie mentioned, better a week than 6-8 weeks.
    Here’s to a quick recovery 🙂

  3. That is weird, I’ve had the same issue with my calf. It was a little sore at the end of three miles a few weeks ago. I didn’t think anything of it but the pain got worse and went in to my ankle and Achilles, so I took a couple of weeks off. After lots of RICE and foam rolling and I did my first run on Wednesday and three miles last night. My calf is a bit tight this morning… I’ll see how it goes this weekend. Good luck with your injury and the grilled cheese!

  4. Hmmmmmmmmm, grilled cheese sandwiches!! 🙂

    Not that your escapades about getting all sweaty and exhausted don’t make for riveting reading – but, oh, boy, grilled cheese sandwiches!! 🙂

    I DROOLED, no kidding, when I saw the picture on your blog site of that cheese sandwich all crispy brown with well-done bacon bits swimming in melty cheese 🙂

    YUMMMM!! I feared my copious drooling would short-out my laptop!! 🙂

    So, like, how do you DO that!!?? I can never get the bacon and the cheese and the bread to cooperate in just the right manner to blow my tastebuds to smithereens!! 🙂

    So, I usually have to make-do with bacon on the side, which, for some reason, is only half as delish and bacon IN the melty cheese 🙂

    An old recipe from the South that might interest you: You buy these little jars of pimentoes in the grocery story … and you dump one jar in a bowl and mash’em up, the resulting mush and pimento juice you mix with grated cheese (of any variety) add a dab of mayonnaise … not too much!!* … then ‘Bob’s Yer Uncle’ you just spread the mush on a sandwich like usual and grill it on the stove!! 🙂

    *Too much mayo will cause the pimento/cheese concoction to get all runny and squish out of the sandwich when you take a bite, resulting in blistered lips or a stained blouse or shirt depending on your sexual orientation 🙂

    Oh, I nearly forgot, hope you’re not hurting any more from all that marathon training!! 🙂

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