An odd week with the threat of both injury and the rain never stopping

Somebody somewhere decided I was not going to run much this week.

On Monday they smirked to themselves, saw it was June and thought “ha, this will be funny, let’s turn on the rain.” And did they do that.

Much to their disappointment, they failed to realise that I’m British and rain is what we do. So obviously I went running anyway.

It was always going to be an easy run after the 7 hour walk in Saturday. I do remember thinking, however, how strong my legs felt given the walking efforts (I’m holding back here, chomping at the bit to further delve into my walking weakness!).

Out of nowhere I felt a tell-tale tightening in my right calf. It wasn’t a “boom, stop in your tracks, take that ” kind of twinge, as I’ve had in the past, just a strange yet still quite sharp tightening.

I’m both very conscious of this now but also very careful not to push my training too hard and build mileage slowly, having come back from calf injuries in the past. The last one was a couple of years ago now.

Given my fastidious care I was therefore a bit gutted and surprised that my calf was threatening going. Whoever it was got their way as I did stop running then, to stretch and try to loosen it up. Very much in Hollywood Rom Com style, the rain also got heavier at that precise moment.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. That’s a terrible Rom Com about a guy stood in a puddle trying to diagnose a calf injury in the rain.

I slowly made my way back to the office and that evening got the old favourite foam roller out. The joys of foam rolling warrants a post of its own so I won’t go into that now.

On asking around and researching a little, I was intrigued as it felt different to previous calf pulls. I do wonder if I have a mild case of shin splints instead since it is more inner leg than the calf muscle itself. Either way, the treatment would be the same: don’t be silly, rest and take it easy.

That just about sums up the rest of the week. In case my leg felt good enough to venture out, the rain gods really hammered it home. It rained almost continuously from Tuesday morning until Friday. My leg had felt good all day Wednesday so I had a slow run/walk tester in the absolute pouring rain:

Even though the leg felt no worse for the run, I was still going to hold off. Whether I was holding off until summer finally edged its way back in or my leg fully recovered I wasn’t sure.

The rain finally stopped on Friday. In fact I thought it had once on Thursday but it hadn’t: I was just so used to getting wet I hadn’t noticed any more.

Where am I now: I’ve stretched and rolled all week and want to give my best shot at Race to the King next weekend. Therefore I’ll do very little until then with perhaps a little jog on Sunday to assess. There is a chance of a run with one of our drivers on Monday too so perhaps I can be persuaded to be soundly beaten by them before I really start tapering and resting for the weekend.

Anyway, happy running this week, fingers crossed it’s rained itself out now and I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has been through shin splints of any kind.

I’m off to continue writing my Rom Com…