Feeling energetic and enthusiastic, I decided to go for a run last night. About halfway through the run, I felt my left calf tweak a bit. I stopped immediately, stretched out, and walked home. At present, I have a minor calf strain, which should work its way out in a few days. In the meantime, I'm trying to walk normally, keep my leg iced, and am stretching it out, trying to maintain a full range of motion. What annoys me is that I did my pre-run stretching and was feeling fantastic up to the point of the tweak. There was no warning sign at all. On the other hand, if I weren't in the kind of shape I'm in, perhaps I would have suffered more. There's got to be a bright side to all of this.
Because of the tweak, I was looking forward to yoga today. I don't usually focus on a specific body part, but today, Downward Dog (especially with the right leg raised in the air) was a huge priority. I could feel the stretch in my calf, never really experienced any pain (just minor discomfort) and was able to make it through the entire workout. I took every opportunity to work on my calf, and by the time the workout ended, I felt like I had a full body massage and was walking with much more ease. To top things off, I went for a walk at lunchtime, to continue stretching and working the affected muscle.
It's a bit of a disappointing end to Recovery Week, but I believe that I'll be OK for Insanity next week, with a couple of days' rest. I'll still be hitting 30-15 hard on Sunday, but pushups don't involve the legs too much, other than for stability, so that workout should be fine.
End of Week 4. Bring on Week 5.
Namaste.
2 comments:
Hope you recover quickly. I had a calf strain a couple of years ago and it took weeks to heal. It was quite a bad strain though but still, take it easy or it can get worse.
Andrea:
Thanks for your concern and for sharing your experience. I'll definitely watch my progress over the next few days and will not take a chance to induce a major injury. Right now, the calf just feels a little sore, so I think I'm on the mend; however, I'll be listening to my body and modifying or taking time off as required.
Thanks for reading!
GP
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