Thursday, February 23, 2012

Knowing When to Stop

A couple of weeks ago, I ran out the door to take advantage of the lovely day and get a 5 mile run in.  Everything felt great...at first.  My Achilles tendons have been feeling a little sore, so I didn't think much about it when my leg started twinging a little.

But then it started aching a lot.  I kept stopping to stretch, which helped temporarily, but by the time I got to my 2.5 mile turnaround, it was hurting. I got home and tried to roll it, which was pretty agonizing. After a bit of research, I found that I may have strained/torn my calf muscle.

Despite being in the middle of marathon training, I decided to just rest until it felt better. This is wise; everything I read said that a little rehab is better than continuing to run on it. So I got an ace bandage, some compression socks, and when it felt better, did a few short runs.

And, all better.  Part of the delight of this training is that I'm learning to listen to my body more, to trust that it'll tell me when something is wrong or when it needs something.  And it needed a little break.

A little over a week until marathon-time--I'm excited and scared all at the same time.  We ran our 22 a few weeks ago, now it's been taper time.  I've been working on my nutrition (listening to my body again!), so I have a lot of energy and feel good.  Almost there!