Who has two thumbs and still can’t run after my half marathon in May? Yeah, this guy. Remember how I mentioned my right Achilles tendon smarting during that final tenth up the final hill? I don’t think that was a tendon; at this point I’m almost positive I tore my calf a bit.
I gave myself a couple of recovery days and, like a twit, fired up a hilly tempo run on the following Thursday. I made it 4 miles in and wham, the calf got me. Out of nowhere. I was fine and then I wasn’t. I walked a bit and stretched — bad idea when dealing with a tear — and ran some more. I was hurting and alternated running and walking the rest of the way back. So started the resting period again. This time I gave it until the following Saturday. 9 days of recovery! That should be plenty. I wasn’t going out hard, wasn’t going for a hilly run. I made it all of 9/10s of a mile before it hurt me again. I did all the inappropriate stuff again and cut my run off at 4 miles before heading to the barn.
This time I’m giving it 2 full weeks before I run. I’m kind of lost, to be honest. I don’t feel like me without my weekend long runs. So, what to do while recovering?
Swimming. I admit it, I am a sorry swimmer. I’ve never competed, never trained, never really even been taught an appropriate stroke. Sure, I had the basics when I was a kid, but I’ve never been taught an efficient exercise-worthy stroke. I make do. My buddy loaned me his Total Immersion book and I’ve watched plenty of YouTube videos of good strokes and I try to emulate that. I’ve done this a few times before for cross-training, and when I first started it was hard. I’d labor to do 400 meters. That was my workout.
Somehow this time is different. I went out and banged out 1200 meters the first day out. Buh? Hell, I did 750 meters before I even took a breather. Previously I was doing good to make it 100 meters before needing to stand up for a bit and breathe. My goal is to add 100 meters each day out. I’ll hit a mile soon which is a mark that seemed impossible even a year ago. It may not be pretty, I may not be able to do a kick-turn and I might make the lifeguards wince, but I’m doing it.
Maybe some day I’ll feel good enough to take on the Pensacola 3-mile Bridge Swim like this guy. That would be something, though the actual swimming part might not be the challenge; keeping cool while envisioning the Surface creature under me will be.
I'm smaller than this boat
June 14th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Eww. Injuries like that…save yourself a couple of years of “I’ll walk it off” and go ye to a doctor.
As for the Pensacola Bay Bridge Swim…3.4 miles sucks. I did it when I was 15 or so…long swim made longer by a current trying to pull you into the bridge…and it was so very long. And I was swimming year-round at that point.
I would shoot for the Fort to Fort swim, if I were you…Fort Barrancas to Ft. Pickens. Much shorter, but definitely doable. Scratch that…I don’t think they do it anymore. Upon further inspection, they just swim a 5k, but obviously tired of the logistics of loading up a bunch of swimmers for a trip back to PNAS. It is the “Fort Barrancas Open Water Swim” now, and it happened June 4th.
The Santa Rosa Island Triathlon is a nice sprint triathlon in October. You should try it out, since by then your calf should be okay. And maybe you won’t be swimming in an oil slick by then.
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