Stupid Calves

I have gotten many compliments on my calves over the years. They are pretty muscular and toned, even when the rest of me is not.  While I'm sure my running helps, I was pretty much born with these. 

They run in my family.  At times I love them, and often they frustrate me.  I've had lots of calf problems over the years... 

This is the bruising from the Graston work. 
Those of you who have read my blog for a while might remember that stuff.  Ugh. 

Yesterday morning I woke up, planning on running my LR for the week, but as I got out of bed and walked across my bedroom, I realized my left calf was really sore.  And tight.  WTH!

I'm not sure what this is all about.  I don't remember doing anything to cause a problem here.  I haven't even run a lot this week.  Whatever it is, the soreness and tightness was enough to panic me a little and so I skipped my long run.  I skipped running altogether.  I skipped running today, too.  Unheard of unless prescribed by a doctor!   I guess I really am becoming a responsible runner.

I've been saying to myself that I should scale back for the next month or so. Let my legs refresh before I start my Wales Marathon training, and then roll right into NYC training.  But I'm not good at scaling back, so I've just kept running.  Maybe this calf issue is my body's way of forcing a rest period.  Yesterday I swam, but today I had a lot of beer to sleep out of my system from a late night last night, so I actually took a complete rest day.  :)

My calves a definitely feeling much more normal today, so I'm hoping these few days off are just what was needed.  I'll likely take tomorrow off, too, and get some miles done on the bike instead.  I have lots of miles ahead to run, so now's the time to work to stay healthy!