Gettin' Swollen

Schraub had been telling me about these killer track workouts he'd been doing with this guy, who happens to be a stupid-fast runner. Yesterday, I got an invite to join them at my alma mater's track for what should have been a delightful afternoon run.

After introductions, etc. were made, and we all got in the requisite, 2-mile warm-up, the workout was explained as a ladder, of sorts: 1600 meters @ intense effort, followed by 1000 meters tempo, followed by 200 meters cool-down. The next set would be 1200 meters intense, 1000 tempo, 200 cool-down, and so on until the main set was just a 400-meter sprint.

Since Frost, the coach, was so much faster of a runner than us, we were advised to see where he was when we began the final lap of the main set. For me, this was the beginning of lap three. As I rounded the corner towards the 100-meter mark, I turned my head to see where he was. I knew I had about another 50 meters to go before I should turn around, but, because I turned my head while on a corner, I must have drifted toward the inside, and my left foot planted on the concrete, causing my ankle to roll. At a 6:20/mi (~9.4mph) pace. As one would expect, I hit the ground, rolled, griping in pain.

In spite of the pain, I managed to get to my feet and limp beneath the bleachers to get pressure off the foot and get myself out of the intense heat. Sitting there, I felt spasms in my left calf, which kind of made me start to think that the calf itself had seized up, causing a misstep, and the subsequent roll. Regardless, I knew the workout was over, and I should get home. After all, I still needed to vacuum before picking up Kai from daycare.

Fortunately, I had ridden my bike to the track, instead of running. By the time I arrived home, the whole of my left foot had swollen exponentially, and was going to require much ice and ibuprofen to bring down the swelling. Application of the ice caused intense spasms in the calf, so compression socks were used to try to alleviate that. They seemed to do the trick, too, because, in spite of the swelling and soreness when pressure is applied to the foot, I can still limp/hobble around effectively enough to continue tending to my chores & such. Unfortunately, it does mean that running for the foreseeable future is questionable, as is cycling. Hopefully, the swelling will subside some in the next day or two, and I can at least get on a spin bike or the trainer. If not, I suppose there's the pool and a pull buoy, providing the legs can't even kick. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that giving up the membership to monthly massages was a bad idea, physically; fiscally, not so much so. Such is life.

Thanks for reading.