Friday Faves--The Weekend Arrived at a Snail's Pace Edition

It seemed like the longest week ever for no discernible reason.  The promise and perceived future ecstasy that comes from a three-day weekend slowed the week down.

Saturday meant another day hanging with The Writing Project.  I love those people.  One of my favorites distributed fortune cookies.  Mine delighted me to no end.  I giggled.

Sunday brought a PR.  I have to Instagram it!  I adore Instagram. 

On Valentine's Day my son brought home the best story.  I'll bullet it for posterity.

• My husband allowed him a small spray of cologne for Valentine's Day. 
• My son was jumping rope at school.
• The object of his affection ran in and began jumping rope with him face to face.  
• My son's male friend grabbed the jump rope and ran.  
• My son caught up with the rope thief and said, "Why did you have to ruin the moment?"
• In retelling the story to his father and I, my son said, "She must've been attracted to my scent."

Then the next day, this popped up on his door. 

My kid is the best.  

I've been relaxing on the couch at night watching television.  I've been waking early and getting to work 45 minutes early all week.  This means falling asleep early.  I feel old.  My precious Paul decided that he wanted all eyes on him.  Nathan Fillion looks shocked. 

Out with the Injury; In with the Heat

This makes a running parent so proud: my son sleeping in his 3K race shirt. We are thinking of training for a 5K in November. He is definitely in for the 3K having run two before, but someone the concept of 5K terrifies him.

I can relate. At one point running continuously for five minutes terrified me. But I'll help get him over his fears.

I let my little athlete sleep in while I went out cautiously and gingerly hoping to run without aggravating the calf strain that I labored so diligently to vanquish. I took off consciously thinking to myself to take it

easy,

easy,

easy.

I'm technically scheduled for intervals today, but I thought that would be a sure shot back to ruined calves. So, for once in my running life, I am being wise. So wise that I am doing doubles cutting my workout in half so as not to load too much onto my calves at one time. I have no idea if there is any science behind this, but it feels like the right thing to do.

This morning the temp was 70º when I started and 73º by the time that I finished. To any non-running members of my reading audience (I wonder if I have an audience at all), this doesn't sound bad. It is. It is about 20º warmer than I like it. I happily and comfortably wear shorts and a tank when it is in the 50s. I don't know if I am normal. I occasionally see other runners out in tons of layers, long pants, sweatshirts, etc when I am out in a tank and shorts. I may be the abnormal one, but then again--watch any race and see how people dress.

The high today is supposed to be 104º. I'm going to speculate that if I wait for the sun to go down, I may have "comfortable" temps in the 90s to run in tonight.

The good news is that this morning's run was without surprise or worry. I iced my calves afterward. Looking forward to battling the heat tonight. It is better than not running at all.

Injury: Tackled? Perhaps. I hope so.

How to Tackle Grade 1 Calf Strains*:

First you must be a master at Google search phrases to land on a diagnosis. Patience is key here, but since you need to rest anyway you can rest your injury while embarking on a diagnosis.

Then you have to ice as much as safely possible. Make sure that you have something in between the ice pack and the skin. See photo above where I use the ugliest of soccer socks for this purpose. Failure to put something between the ice and the skin could result in frostnip and ice burn. That is scary to see. You'll think you killed your skin. Literally. (Don't ask me how I know this. ::whistles innocently::)

You should also compress those calves. This is my first foray into compression, and I have to say that I am in LOVE. My husband hit up our lame little Big 5 looking for something for my calves and brought home two McDavid Calf Compression Sleeves. Made of neoprene, this bad boys are TOUGH to get on. Truth be told, I developed a bit of a complex because I sized in at a medium sleeve and it was super tough to get on. I'm a woman; what the hell size does a man wear for crying out loud?!?! Even though I got stuck in the whole pathetic "my-calves-are-huge-too-huge-I'm-not dainty" refrain for a bit, my mind quieted because those things WORK. I work them for three hour stretches at a time, and I could tell a difference.

(Now I must interrupt here, and write a few words about the differences between correlation and causation. They aren't the same. Did the compression cure me? Maybe. Did time cure me? Maybe. Did icing and rest cure me? Maybe. Was it the whole combo? Most likely. But I can't help but look at those compression sleeves with a sense of wonder. Squeezy squeezy helps. I think. I hope. I think I want a pair for running. A purple pair. I can't run in neoprene.)

Look ahead to the future. I can't wear the compression sleeves to work. I can't ice at work. So I thought I would try KT tape (which I purchased in BRIGHT PINK**) on the left calf. The one that hurts more. My right one is nearly back in business. Most right strides I can hardly notice there was a problem, but I still am limping with my left strides.

Using the website's videos, my husband who probably never realized that a vow to be there in sickness and health meant that he would have to learn how to handle injury like a physical therapist, taped my calf last night to help me through the walking that I cannot avoid today. We used a ball point pen to mark on my calf the site of the pain. He taped around it in the way that the video suggested. Tape is still on after a night of sleeping. No rolling at all. We'll see how well it helps today.

I think the pink tape suits me. I hope so. I have to go out in public.

Last. Writing about the injury seems to have helped. Yay, for superstition.

____________

*My own diagnosis. I *do* have a degree in American Literature and Culture for heaven's sake.

**After realizing how large my calves must be, I opted for pink to soften or feminize the calf. Yes.

End of Weekend Wrap Up

Thanks to the three-day weekend and the fact that I have mere hours left on my contract for this year, I had a lot of free time this weekend to read.

I finally finished Game of Thrones (oddest conclusion to a novel eva!). Before moving on to Clash of Kings (which I have. See pic below), I needed a little escape from Martin's gritty fantasy realm. I needed a dose of reality. I turned to non-fiction and picked up Marshall Ulrich's Running on Empty. This was probably one of the best running books that I've read. And since I am in a listing mood:

1. It was truly a love letter to his wife and his crew. It was a testament to the fact that independence isn't wise; that wisdom is in a team.
2. It shed light on why the documentary Running America featured such a lame narrative. I'm looking at you, Charlie Engle.
3. It revealed a powerful narrative of his journey running across America.

I actually went to his Facebook page, "liked" him and wrote his a comment of appreciation along the lines that his narrative would have greatly improved the documentary. He wrote back with a thanks. Then he sent me a message. Marshall Ulrich sent me a message! He sent me a message about my profile pic teasing me for calling the guy behind me old.

79 is old! That guy is 79. I ran the marathon faster than him, but not by much. I told Marshall that I hope that I am still out there at 79. And I do.

After that jaunt into reality, I am back to George R.R. Martin and Book 2 of Song and Ice Saga/Series Whatever it is. Good grief. Dragons are involved.

When I wasn't reading, I was running. I ran every single day this weekend. This delights me. This also impresses me.

Equally if not more impressive is that fact that I seem to be devoted to core work as evidenced by the fact that I did the whole INFERNAL Ab Buster routine from Nike Training Club. And for some odd reason, I looked up the 100 push up training plan, printed it out and completed Week 1, Day 1 (doing girl push ups--I am so weak).

What is happening to me?

I also kicked around in these all day. I love feeling barefoot. I ran .4 mile in my other pair. My calves said "Thanks. Thanks. A lot."

It felt like the beginning of summer today. This summer will mean a lot of reading, writing, running, and eating.

I can't wait for the end of my contract!