Sunday, November 20, 2011

My initial confidence is waning....

Mostly I am really confused and my Dr is not really clarifying things that well. My gut instinct tells me I am not giving my leg long enough to heal. And it's not.

Yesterday started out really fun. I had volunteered to help support the marathon bench mark run that one of our training groups under Austin Fit was running. They had a 12 mile long run and we ran 3 water/aid stations. I was captain of the last stop. So I showed up early, picked up water/Gatorade/first aid supplies/table and hauled it all to the stop location. Plenty of time to sit and relax and talk to my team members (Emma, Franni, Laura and her boyfriend Keith) before the first runners came through. It was really cool, being on the other side of the table and taking pictures of the groups that came through...I'm guessing about 75 runners total. The only real mix up was no one was tracking the last group on the course, and they bailed without telling anyone. So I sat there like an idiot for over an hour and a half waiting for them. Very rude of them to abandon and not tell anyone. But overall it was a great experience I will do again! The runners/walkers that did come through were so thankful!

After dropping off my table/supplies, I decided to take a short run since I was already down at Town Lake anyway. Only a week after a very, very painful 8.44 mile run, I was dubious. My Dr had told me that the initial calf tear was really healing nicely - that much I am sure he was right about. However, I had started experiencing pain in my Soleus muscle, the inner muscle that the Gastrocs cover. That proved to portent of things to come, because it started feeling really tight - went to painful and back to tight, and after a mere 3 miles (the most painful 3 miles so far) it seemed to be in much the shape my Gastroc was in initially. I iced it quite a bit yesterday and although I tried to do the trigger point stretches, they made it hurt even more. So I'll talk to the Dr at tomorrow's appt and see what he has to say. I am going to tell him that I'm worried the rolling/stretching is when the Soleus started to hurt, and I want to know why. My good (right) leg was feeling really tight too, although I think that may be because it is bearing more of the brunt during my runs than the left leg is.

Megs went to a Steve Aoki concert at a local downtown club - ALONE last night. I was so nervous dropping her off, but seeing they had very good security in place and knowing she could not leave the club helped me calm my fears somewhat. Also, her older sister was in another club just blocks away. Megan is a very trustworthy young lady and I know she was excited to be trusted to go alone. It just worked out that none of her friends could go, and I know she wanted to see this DJ so badly. I picked her up just after Midnight and it was all good - she was so excited about it all. We hit a 24 hr Denny's diner and had some breakfast and just hung out and talked. That was great! We've had a really nice weekend. My baby girl will always be my baby girl, but she is growing into a young woman before my eyes. She's working hard in school, and has her head on straight. What more can a dad ask for?