October 19, 2010

A Lost Week

Week of Oct. 11 ~ 17

Having suffered a bad cramp in my left calf in the 10k race on Oct. 10, the only plan this week was to rest until it got better. Which did not happen by the end of the week. Still have some soreness on Sunday, will try to run Monday.
It got a bit better each day, but I can still feel some pain. It was a bad cramp!

Of course, jogging (limping) 3 kilometers on it did not help. Interesting that instead of just walking, I continued to jog, even though I had given up all thoughts of it being a race. In fact, with 600m to go, I was actually at the finish line. They needed an extra 600m, so runners had to go out 300m and back again...which I did. Stupid in hindsight, but I was just in the mindset: "This is a race and I should finish." Your mind is running on a certain track and it just doesn't occur to you to shift it over to a different track. Let that be a lesson to us all. If injury strikes, Walk! And you will be back running sooner.

I did drag myself to the gym on Sunday for 8' + 16' of stepping, weights and core exercises. I suppose I should have gone over there some other days, but paradoxically, when I am injured, cross training does not appeal to me. I feel if I'm not running, I'm not "in training." Strange, but there you are.

3 comments:

  1. You have a good point there Bob. We ought to be smart enough to just cut our loses. When things go wrong like that there is really not any point pushing on and making it worse.

    Anyway most of us mugs do it but the pros will stop and regroup to come back even stronger. Look at Sammy who came back from two DNF to run such a fine race in Chicago recently!

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  2. Unfortunately most runners don't always take the wise path.
    I, of course, always seem to take the WORST path.
    Hope you are back and firing soon Bob.

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  3. I hope you can easy (quickly) back into it next week Bob. Sounds like it might have been a strain or a slight muscle tear rather than a cramp. Anyway, all the best with it.

    Deciding which "injuries" during races need stopping for is never easy - unless one is "lucky" enough to have a Deena Kastor-style broken foot ;)

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