A belated running update

I'm keeping this short because the whole thing makes me sad/angry/frustrated.

Remember the busted left Achilles that plagued me last fall? It seems that my right leg was feeling a bit neglected and decided to join the party. Perfect. Just in time for marathon #5 that I had hoped to run in December. Clearly I signed up too soon.

I know this is totally self inflicted. I know I barely stretched after Chicago. I'm lucky if I put 5 minutes of stretching in. BAD! Ladies and gentlemen, rule number one that I know I should be following but am unbelievably bad at: STRETCH STRETCH STRETCH!

The crazy knot I used to get on my upper outside left calf (the soleus) manifested in my right calf last week during a run and I knew exactly what I was getting into. In an effort to nip this sucker in the bud, I immediately called Psoas Massage + Bodywork to see if I could schedule a last minute ART session. I learned about Psoas and ART through my running group and knew what wonders a 15 minute session could do for me. Luckily they were able to squeeze me in the following day.

Tightness confirmed. I felt much better after my session and learned a little bit more about how connected all my leg muscles are and how one can affect another in a domino effect (quads to hamstrings to calf to foot!). I also walked away with a couple stretches and strengthening exercises to keep my legs loose and happy.

Still not 100% comfortable with getting back to running (right Achilles was a bit tender this morning) so I'm not sure if December's race is going to happen. I'll have a better idea in a week. It'll suck since I did pay for the race, hotel and train ticket, but I really don't want to go, run a bad race and end up with something even worse. Meh. We'll see. Right now I'm doing a lot of bonding with the stick, tennis balls and golf balls...might even rock an ice bath this weekend. Jealous?

I've got one more session at Psoas planned for Thursday and I'm hoping that, combined with some diligent home stretching/loosening up, will get me back on the road again. Fingers crossed.