When Cole returned from his dad’s house on January 2, he brought with him a fever and the flu. As soon as Cole was healthy, Chet rapidly started to decline. Although he didn’t test positive for anything, he had a fever for days. He stayed in my arms from Sunday through Wednesday. As Chet’s health improved, Christian’s body started to fall apart. Somehow in this mess, I stayed healthy physically. Mentally I was tired from nursing my family back to health for almost two weeks. And my running took a back seat. When my baby is sick, I can’t leave him. When he only finds comfort in my arms, running disappears from my thought process.
So I missed my 17 mile run last weekend.
No big deal. I planned on running 17 or 18 this weekend, and I’d just keep moving on with my plan.
And then my calf started acting funny. My soleus muscle (based on my own self-diagnosis) is irritated. It ached Thursday night. Friday it was sore all day. I decided to take the advice of a friend, and I decide it was best for me to ignore my training plan. I need to not let a number on a piece of paper dictate my training.
On to the next plan. I decided to just run a long run today to ease my way back into training. Not 17 or 18, but I wanted double digits. I ended up running 11 miles with my friend Heidi. My calf didn’t hurt, but it was very tight. I stopped to stretch a few times. I tortured myself with an ice bath. I’ve been wearing compression sleeves all day. Right now it doesn’t hurt, but it is very tender to the touch.
I’m going to very carefully moving forward. I’ve reworked my training plan (and I’m very thankful I made my schedule with wiggle room). If all goes well, I’ll run 17 next weekend.
While this run (and my lack of run last weekend) didn’t leave me feeling inspired at my core, it’s reminding me that an ONLY 11 mile run is still 11 miles. I need to respect the mileage even if it is a fall back week. It’s showing me just how far I’ve come with my ability to let things go because I’m not freaking out. And most importantly, it’s nice to really let go of running during moments when I need to be a mom 100% of the day.
I’m icing, compressing, and moving forward with my training plan. The boys are healthy, my calf will feel better, and we are back to normal.
Kristy Maute 