Mending

Since my marathon on April 28th, I've run a total of 3 miles. The week after,  I went out and ran 2 miles straight, but for fear of pushing it, I didn't go any further. The next day I injured my calf muscle somehow. I've been working out on the elliptical and the bike ever since. A week and a half went by and I was itching to get back out there so bad, I tried running on the treadmill but made it less than a half mile and felt the pain in my calf so bad that I had to stop. I moved to the elliptical, despite the pain.

Another week went by and I tried it again. This time the plan was to go out and run 1/2 mile, then turn around and come back. Well, I was feeling so good that I kept going. At 3/4 of a mile I turned around and something I did either turning around or twisting my leg or something caused the calf pain again. It wasn't the sharp Charlie horse-like cramp pain (which wasn't a cramp) but it was slowly increasing intensity until it was impossible to run any more. I walked a little bit, then tried to run again. It wasn't happening. When there was a 1/4 mile left, I was able to run the rest of the way home with some pain.

That was a week and a half ago. Ever since then, my calves have been achy. They feel like I need to get out again and run. I've been using the elliptical but that doesn't give me the good workout feeling that running does. Today I tried rolling my calves out on the foam roller, but that just seems to make it worse. They are very restless right now. I don't know what to do. I want to run so bad, and I feel like my legs want to too, but I think I need to rest them a little more. I don't want to, but need to.