Dealing With a Setback

I was going to do a WIAW post, but, yesterday’s eats were pretty embarrassing. I knew that I was getting low on groceries, but I failed to realize how bad the situation was until I went to make breakfast/pack my lunch Wednesday morning.  I was out of just about everything. I made do with what I had, and The Tall One was nice enough to drop lunch off at the office for me.  As soon as I left work, though, I went right to Giant Eagle to restock.  Whew.

I was able to get my 4 miles in on Wednesday morning, and 3 in Monday afternoon (with minimal foot/calf pain), but by Wednesday night my legs were screaming at me.  My calf muscles are crazy tight, and I’ve been icing and compressing like crazy. I skipped the 4 miles this morning and as much as I haaaaaate skipping training runs, I decided that missing one day of running is better than missing 4 weeks worth of running.  Look at me being all responsible and stuff. The legs are feeling better today, so I’m going to try for my long run tomorrow (it’s my 4th week and a step back so it’s only 7 miles). If the pain/tightness starts to come back, I’m prepared to back off but hopefully I won’t have to. 

I’m getting a tad frustrated with the entire situation – running in the morning is no problem; running at night leaves me in pain and causes me to miss days (and sometimes weeks) worth of running. The first thing I’m going to do is go for a Graston treatment Monday evening. I’ve also decided to visit  Foot & Ankle Specialist in the hopes that they can give me some answers; whether it’s physical therapy to strengthen my feet and legs, custom orthotics, or something else (crossing my fingers that it won’t be an extended break from running). I’ve maintained for some time now that since it only happens at specific times, it must be something that I’m either doing or not doing…hopefully they will have some ideas for me. Or at least point me in the right direction.  In the meantime, as long as my legs don’t get worse, I’m going to continue with my running (AM only for now) until I’m told otherwise. I’m not calling this an injury (it feels to wimpy to call it that), so for now I’m just calling this a setback in my training.

How do you deal with “extended breaks”, “setback”, or…..injuries?

And, because I feel like this is a bit of a downer, here is a picture of my blog “editor”. She’s kind of awesome.

My editor. She takes her job very seriously.