A short run and a little pain...

Tuesday, June 4, 2013
I had a meeting after work to discuss OhioActive and Tour Ohio.  I told my partners about the excitement of having the Cleveland Metroparks supporting my trip and went over issues I was encountering laying out the cycling course.  We decided that the trip should be a big part of the kickoff of the magazine, utilizing the notoriety Tour Ohio should create and how that can bring meaningful attention to OhioActive and its mission.

I left the meeting and drove to the Metroparks to try and squeeze in a short run.  I was thinking that I could handle 30 minutes since my calf has been feeling strong and I went 20 minutes with bleacher work on my previous effort.  I started slowly, but picked up the pace after five minutes and felt great…until I didn’t.  As is usually the case, I could feel a tightness developing in my calf and a warning to stop.  I’m about 50/50 for paying attention to the warning, which means about half the time I do the right thing and the other half, the stupid thing.  I did the right thing and began to walk.  I could hear rugby play in the distance and knew it would be Jason’s team practicing.  It took about eight minutes to walk there and I spent the next 20 watching the team drill and talking to some of the players.  I re-entered the woods and headed for the car with my leg feeling normal again and so, quite naturally, began to run.  I climbed my karaoke hill at a slow jog pace and made it back to the car…a little over 8 minutes of running…without pain.

There is no sense to what goes on with my calf.  It has been giving me trouble off and on for 12 years.  I don’t know what started it, but do know that too much running triggers it.  I thought it had gone away completely with all the running I was able to do over the last couple of years, but when I took a break from running regularly and then tried to return to quickly, it was back.  My doctor has no clue.  Honestly though, it’s now just a supplement.  I enjoy riding more than ever and with the kayaking, backpacking and Survival Workout, I can survive without it.  It remains a nice filler though because I can do it anywhere and burn so many calories in such a short time.  I’ll keep trying to have it in my fitness routine.

Run duration:  20 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.
Calories burned:  350.