Step, Ouch, Step, Ouch! [Entered 7/18/07]

Monday and Tuesday...the calf recovery continued. I woke up ready to go on Monday for the scheduled easy running and circuit work, but I was severely hobbled. My calf hurt to the point that I wasn't moving at all normally, so after taking some ibuprofen, I climbed back into bed. Discretion being the better part of valor and all that stuff... I spent Monday gently stretching and massaging my calf, trying to get it to the point that it functioned better. After some walking around and careful attention, it felt better by the end of the day. But, there was no running on Monday. Tuesday, I continued the self-treatment, and then headed down to let Ron work my legs over. I suffered a bit more than usual, due to the residual effects of the calf cramp and my failure to stretch after the long run on Friday. But, by the end of the massage, he was able to work the calf pretty deeply, and I wasn't begging for the deep tissue work to end. So, I was assured that I hadn't messed up anything too badly, and that was a big relief. I even got out Tuesday evening for a gentle 45 minute jog, right at 4.6 miles, just to get the legs moving a bit. It didn't even hurt to run, so I was quite happy about that. Gazelles on Wednesday!!