so....now what???

Post-marathon, I thought I'd take a week off to relax....but I've never been good at relaxing. The frustrating part, though, is that I think my legs would really really like me to.

I know the doctor diagnosed me with a generic "calf strain", but doing my own research, I'm pretty sure posterior tibial tendonitis (PTT) is more of what I've been dealing with. The day before the race, I noticed that it seemed to have migrated - I could pinpoint another, similar, bruise-like pain to the middle of the inside of my calf. Of course, it being the day before the race, the proper response was to freak the f out. However, KT taping not only the OTHER pain site but the new one seemed to keep everything together for the 'thon.

Isn't it pretty??

In the aftermath, my entire calf feels way tight. I'm still sorting out what pain's what, but as the usual (I'm guessing) 26.2 mile soreness wears out, that's what I'm left with. I was feeling that way to a slightly lesser degree the week before, too. Stretching and foam rolling don't seem to touch it, and it doesn't feel tight to the touch - I think everything's tightened up way the heck down in there.

So I'm getting myself a nice massage this weekend in hopes that THAT will do some good. According to the interwebs, PTT does well with a deep tissue massage anyway (although the pinpoint pain stuff is not nearly as noticeable as it used to be - and it's never again been as bad as it was in the aftermath of the Newtown 5k.)

Meanwhile, I'm a bit restless. I already want to run again (although today I've just felt super exhausted - I think it kicked in late.) Yesterday, I felt jumpy enough to take a 3 mile walk, thinking 4 mph would be a struggle. Nope - I was walking at an average of barely over a 14 minute mile, including up and down some insane hills. I was power-walking, ya'll. Then on the last downhill I decided to "run" although that wasn't really possible yet and I probably just looked like a big doof trying to propel my hobbling, uncooperative legs forward (and running at an 11 minute pace. Downhill.)

I totally want to do some more races - the Warrior Run 5k, possibly one of the versions of the Deer Creek triathlon, but that's the weekend of the first - eep. It's also my last chance for a tri this season, and they have a sprint, an olympic and a half ironman (no, I'm not going for the half IM yet!) Cinci half marathon is in less than a month. I wasn't planning on it, but after PRing the first half of my marathon, I'm really curious as to how fast I could do it. Aaaand I keep telling myself NO racing unless this calf thing is 100% gone. I'm not interested in prolonging it further; I'm also not interested in not running!!!

I also am big time in need of new shoes and in a new shoe/orthotic setup. I think I mentioned before that I've got too much of a good thing going on, and I'm now rolling my feet outwards instead of inwards, so it makes sense that I'm hurting the tendons on my inner leg, which are probably fighting back. I will be consulting a running store (maybe multiple running stores) this weekend. 'Cuz this pain thing? I'm pretty much over it, thanks. I'm just insanely happy that the most recent round of it wasn't nearly enough to keep me from a 26.2!!!!