Here's a bit of a recap from last week until now. Two weeks ago my left calf tightened up on a 12-mile run that I eventually cut a mile short. I figured that since I cut my run short my calf would be alright the next day if I just took it easy. I got exactly 1.49 miles into my run a day later and BAM! A jolt of pain went shooting through my calf and I was right back where I started. I walked for a bit, and once the pain subsided I tried to run again, really slowly, hoping it would loosen up. It didn't, so I ended up taking several days off from running. My wife surprised me with an awesome secret date she had planned and I said, "Screw running for awhile. I'm going to enjoy the holidays with my family. My legs could use a long rest anyways."
I ended up going 9 days without running, and on that tenth day I was so excited for a run. My legs felt awesome, the weather was pretty nice, and I was ready to go. I started out easy to see how my calf felt, and it was like nothing ever happened. I picked up the pace a little and was feeling great. I only planned on running 4 miles since it was my first day back, but once I thought my calf was okay I started thinking about running 6 or 8 miles, and then maybe 10 the next day, and then 40 the next day, and 100 the day after...you know how it is when you feel good running :-) To my astonishment, at exactly 1.49 miles BAM! I jolt of pain went shooting through my left calf again.
I was so confused. I didn't understand. I did the right thing! I didn't push it when I felt a little injury coming on. I took 9 days off! I relaxed! Why is my calf still messed up!? I felt amazing for the first 1.48 miles!
I took 2 more days off and tried to think through how my calf cramped up again after giving it so much time to recover. I was feeding my son a banana today when it hit me. I hadn't eaten a banana in weeks. I realized that I've hardly been getting any potassium in my diet. For some reason I just naturally quit eating all of the things that I get potassium from; potatoes, yogurt, salmon, mushrooms, bananas. I don't know why, I just haven't had them with meals lately. I felt so stupid after I thought of it. I ate half of my son's banana (we were sharing, I didn't take it!) and then I ate another one for good measure.
Later this afternoon I went for a run and managed to pump out 4 miles relatively pain-free. I ran slow and could feel that my calf was still tender, but it wasn't seizing up, and that was all I could ask for. It baffles me that my first thought after a cramp wasn't, "Maybe I should get some electrolytes in my system." Such a stupid rookie mistake. Hopefully I've solved the riddle with my calf and I can start paying more attention to how I'm fueling my body during all of this running! Oh well, lesson learned. Last week was my lowest volume, and slowest pace since last summer, but I'm happy I was able to finish a 4-miler today.
Training Summary Last Week:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Off
Friday: Off
Saturday: 3.01 miles; 31:22; avg. pace 10:22/mi
Sunday: Off
Total Mileage: 3.01 miles
Total Time: 31:12
Average Pace: 10:22/mi
Happy Running!
