I Spoke Too Soon

In my last post, I mentioned that the foot/calf pain I was experiencing had corrected itself and that the subsequent 2 weeks of training had gone very well. The temperatures were getting cooler and I was starting to get excited about running MCM.

I spoke to soon. My assigned run for last Tuesday was a 1:20 step up run, 20 minutes in zone 2, 20 minutes in zone 3, 30 minutes in zone 4, cool down for 10 minutes. About 15 minutes into the run, I started to feel a sharp, stabbing pain in my left calf.  I continued on for a few more minutes until the pain became so intense that I could not continue. Needless to say, I felt frustrated and dejected. I secretly hoped that with some stretching and foam rolling I'd be able to do my 1:15 recovery run the next day. Due to a death in the family, that run didn't happen. I was hoping 3 days of no running (2 days for Rosh Hashana followed by Shabbat) would be enough rest to get my long run done last Sunday. I thought wrong. 15 minutes into the run the pain was back.

I saw my massage therapist on Monday and he really worked on the leg. I saw my Podiatrist yesterday just to rule out the possibility of any structural damage to the calf. Thankfully there was nothing structurally wrong and the podiatrist felt it should get better with some serious stretching and foam rolling. He also sent me home with one of these

a splint or sorts to help stretch out the muscles.

All of this raises the obvious question: What's my status for MCM?
Honestly, I don't know yet. I spoke with Coach Jeff and he thinks that even if I don't run another step between today on October 30 that I could finish the race. The reason being that I have a big training base both from Vermont and all of the training I did up until now. He said that I shouldn't expect to PR but that I should be able to run an easy marathon and enjoy the atmosphere. I'd like to use MCM as the race where I remember why I love marathoning. I think that's gotten away from me and running MCM for fun maybe just what I need.

That's the plan I'm going to follow. This week I've been stretching, rolling, and riding the spin bike. I may try to run next week just to see how it is. I have until October 20 to defer my entry to 2012 if the calf isn't better.

Stay tuned....