Last weeks mileage was very light.  Very light because I have injured my left calf muscle.

**Disclaimer ~ I am not a doctor or physical therapist.  All injuries should be diagnosed by a doctor**

Whew, got that out-of-the-way.  It is undeniable I have injured my left calf or the soleus muscle to be exact.  To what extent I’m not 100% sure, but I imagine from all the reading I’ve done it is a moderate injury.  Ankle is swollen and calf is tender to the touch with some pain walking.  So says the armchair doctor and of course all hail Web MD!  I went on a 5 mile run on Wednesday.  Everything was great and around mile two I felt a pop and that was all she wrote.  Fin.  What made matters worse I was half~way into the run and it was raining.  I don’t run with a phone so I hobbled on home.  Awww Shucks!  Quite the downer.  This is the first time I’ve ever had a calf injury, so I started doing some reading.  There is plenty information out there so I won’t list it here, again don’t believe everything you read on the internet. For the most part the sites I visited I’m fairly certain were giving me sound information, never to be replaced by a professional advice, of course. 

Interesting article take-aways.  If there is swelling minimize the amount of massaging the affected area due to possible clotting   Massaging the area could release any clots that might be forming which isn’t a good thing.  Massage should happen after the acute injury phase.  And calf injuries tend to increase with AGE (what!).Ooookay, I definitely wasn’t following the massage advice in the beginning and there is no doubt I felt this injury coming but kept pushing.  Needless to say I will be more aware of how I treat injuries in the future.  I acted a little callous towards the possibility I may have something quite severe.  Lesson learned.  Now time to heal it properly so I can continue. 

Good news is I can still bike, slowly at first.   Not the news I wanted to report, but there it is in all its crappy glory.  Maybe I should be more positive and grateful that this is all that happened, I can adjust fire and continue running after I heal.  Ok…I’ll take that route.  Five of the hardest miles completed with 9,851.51 miles (hoping without pain ~ highly doubtful) remaining.  Happy miles to you…no matter how painful.