Weekly Workout Recap: The Exploding Calf from Hell

My week in exercise can best be summarized by saying my right calf thinks I need to chill. My right calf has been telling me to chill ever since the strenuous charity boot camp the week of Thanksgiving. I have not been using my listening ears and have been attempting to push through it.

This is stupid for a variety of reasons. The most obvious being that it's probably not going to get better until I take a rest. Duh.

Two days after the boot camp, while attempting to push through it, I attempted to do my 10K training for Week 10 Day 2. Twenty minutes in I felt a sort of ballooning of pain in my calf followed by the balloon almost popping. So I stopped running and iced the calf. Then two days later it was feeling 80% better so I got it in my head to try again. I successfully completed W10D2 but then the next day my calf was back to feeling about 40%.

So the obvious thing to do was rest it for three days. So naturally, two days later I attempted W10D3. Because I'm an idiot. Clearly. And on top of that, I had already walked 5 miles that morning. Speaking of which, I've been walking 5 miles everyday despite the calf issue. Because I'm an idiot. Clearly. Again, my right calf said Chill and I'll get better and my brain translated that to keep walking.

Forty minutes into W10D3 my brain had an epiphany and I just stopped.

I bought some KT tape and ordered compression socks online. I'm loving the KT tape and have convinced myself it's helping and can feel the difference when I go down stairs. I'm still looking forward to the arrival of my compression socks. In the meantime, I have not attempted to run again which has translated to 2 days so far. I'm hoping tomorrow might be the day but I'm going to attempt to pretend I'm intelligent and not run if the calf still hurts. My insane "push through the pain" husband commented that he must be rubbing off on me. That is not a good sign. I am the voice of reason in this household when it comes to muscle pain and I need to maintain that title

I blame my inability to chill on the fact that my weight loss has been kind of floating around the same number. I think this is what they call a plateau. I'm ready to move past this plateau and see some new numbers on my scale. I keep thinking more exercise will help with that. But I'm also worried that my running endurance will take a hit the longer I go without running. Having only just finished my first 5K, I kind of scared I'll go backwards. I'm trying hard to remember that my health kick is a marathon not a sprint and that having patience is part of the challenge and how I handle that challenge will define how successful I am. But all of that is easier said than done! But that's where I'm at.

My total miles for November ended up being 130.54 which I consider amazing. Definitely above average for me and not something I'm likely to be able to do every month. But, yeah for November! For this past week, my total miles were 41.64 including 1 short run, 1 medium run, one long run (for me!) and the rest walking. Walking, walking and more walking.

I've also started the Merry Planksmas challenge planking everyday. My daughter thinks I'm insane but has been running the stopwatch for me. She hasn't mastered getting a photo of it at the same time though. I'd complain except my planking endurance doesn't really give her much time to work with. Day 1 was an elbow plank for 37 seconds, Day 2 was reverse blank for 1 minute and Day 3 was a push up plank for 46 seconds.

And that's it for me!

Linking up with Little Girl in the Big World for the Weekly Workouts Roundup!