Monday, December 10, 2007

And then ACK! I killed my leg!

So last week was going pretty swimmingly according to the log. I ran 58.5, with a 17 mile long run on Saturday, and was going to make it about 70 on Sunday. The beginning of the week was fine:

Mon: 8 ez
Tue: 8 ez
Wed: group run 9.5 with the middle 7 around 6:30-6:45 in the snow
Thu: 8 ez
Fri: 8 ez
Sat: 17 falling apart

Friday I noticed that my right shin was little tight. It really wasn't anything notable, any more or any less than any other ache that you get running. I didn't even write in my log, where otherwise I sound like a whiny hypochondriac.

Then on Saturday, I went out in the late afternoon for my long run. I remember that both of my shins were tight fairly early on, but this is pretty common for me. Especially in the winter here, it's a tough balance between starting out too fast or being overdressed later on. Both were fine by mile 5 or so though. Around 6.5 I remember looking for a place to stretch my right shin because it had started to tighten up again.

I stretched it, and in hindsight, this should have been the warning, it just felt worse. Usually that sort of in-run stretching helps me out.

After another 2 miles or so the hurting got more intense and I realized the run was doomed. Unfortunately I had planned an out and back, so I was about 8.5 miles from my car. Carp!

Again in retrospect, I should have called my wife to load the kids up and come down and pick me up, but that idea never really dawned on me.

The trip back to the car was bad, and getting darker by the minute. The last 5 was especially bad and I was wincing every time my right foot hit the ground.

I did make it back, and then discovered in the car that this is also the gas-pedal muscle, and I drive a standard, so that was tough.

The reaction was pretty bad. I had a lot of swelling, and a bright red patch (maybe 3x4 inches) on my right shin. It was very stiff and I couldn't put any weight on it. Through Sunday, ice seemed to help a little with the swelling, but Advil didn't seem to be doing much, and didn't really help with the pain. By Sunday night it was sausage-swollen.

This morning it seems maybe a little better. The swelling has gone down a bit, but considering I had it up in bed all night, that would make sense. The redness is gone. It is still very stiff and sore and I have limited movement. I have no pain wiggling my toes, or raising my foot slightly, but a good amount if I point my toes.

So all the signs point to a good muscle or tendon sprain. I am trying to get into my doc for a confirmation, but I'm pretty sure the prescription will be RICE.

This one is definitely more serious than some of my previous dings and dents, so I am not running until I have clear signs that this is healed.

What's mystifying to me right now - beyond how long this will take to heal so I can run again :) - is how it happened. It didn't pop dramatically like a hamstring pull, and I don't think I had the warning signs going in like with most overtraining.

I think I have been very conservative building my weekly mileage since my calf was injured in the fall, and that injury was in the other leg. I have had no problems of note with this leg.

Here are my weekly totals since then:

2007-10-08,17.5
2007-10-15,31
2007-10-22,41
2007-10-29,41
2007-11-05,47
2007-11-12,64.5
2007-11-19,64.5
2007-11-26,56.0
2007-12-03,58.5

Maybe the week of 11-12 should have been a 50, but that was the week I jogged the marathon and I had been running 50s and some 60s all summer. But maybe jumping up to that, then not taking some down weeks after built up some fatigue?

I haven't been doing any fast paced work, nothing much faster than 6:30 pace, except a couple miles in a progression a few weeks back, not tempos, no intervals, no races.

It's possible that I tweaked something on my Wed night group run, we were running decently fast in the snow. But I don't remember feeling it.

It's possible that I've put in a few too many TM miles - I was running all outdoors until the wintery mix started, and I did one on the TM last week, then 4 this week. Usually the TM is kinder to my legs than the road.

Or maybe too long without a day off? My last 0 was 11/26. I've been fatigued, but that's generally how I feel when building up some miles.

Not enough stretching? I've probably been a little lax with it - I've been running more in the morning and with the time pressure of getting out to work it's tough to do.

Obviously I misread badly how it was on Friday and should have cut the Saturday run of. But I'm really surprised by this one coming out of nowhere.

If either of you loyal readers see anything above that points to this, or have ideas on where I went wrong please let me know.

And apologies to Seebo, who I had to bag on a scheduled Sunday run via email since the only way I could have accompanied him would have been leaning out the window of my car.

3 comments:

seebo said...

That sounds like a nasty injury, Tom. The uncertainty around the injury must be particularly frustrating. Hang in there and we'll get that run in when we're both ready.

Mindi said...

Yes, that does sound bad. I had a similar strain (although not nearly as bad as you describe) and it was because I did too much in too short of a time. I did a mile race on Sunday and since I had to skip my weekend long run for it, I ran 20 on Tuesday on a very hilly course in ridiculously hot weather. I think we tend to underestimate the beating we take during racing. You just did a marathon - that is a huge stress on your body even if you don't run all out and you continued training through it. Apparently that shin decided to rebel. Good luck with the RICE. Hopefully it will be a thing of the past soon.

Anonymous said...

Mindi nailed it. You ran a marathon--albeit very slowly--but that's simply not a volume you're accustomed to doing, and that's a lot time on your feet. Compound that with the previous injuries you were dealing with, and yup, you're dinged--as most anyone would be.

Far be it from to critique, as you know, I'm the king of stupidity. That said, I think you're taking the absolute right steps in resting up for the next few days. Once the acute stuff calms down, you'll be able to go back to some more normal volume. In other words, I think this might be more minor than major.

Funny comment, by-the-by, about both your loyal readers.