Comrades - Healthy Calves

Yesterday was our last day of safari in Kruger. My focus now turns to Comrades. We arrived in Durban today, bib picked up, expo done, and I'm healthy. I feel fortunate about that.

Momma is trying to keep her calf (baby) healthy and so am I

Calf strains. I have a history. The first memorable one occurred a couple weeks before the 2010 NYC Marathon. That case of posterior tendonitis hung around for months. While switching to a midfoot strike, by calves felt constantly tight. Later, it was calf strains that sidelined me periodically from training, forcing me to skip events. More recently, my calf would get a fairly sudden, seemingly unprompted tweak during an EZ run shortly after I’ve raced some endurance event. Probably running too soon, I figured. I made it practice to try to stay diligent about mitigating these strains. They were usually minor and at least it was isolated. No more IT band or knee issues since changing my stride and posture.

But why did this latest strain happen? I was 6 miles into an EZ 10 mile run on a mild for winter evening. I was diligent about building a base unrushed and already I had a couple weeks of back-to-back long runs in the bank- all successful. My mileage wasn’t crazy high yet, and it actually would get to be at any point in the season. And the last week was basically a cutback week, since I caught a cold and took it easy. So what the hell is up? Frustration mounted as I stopped on Flatbush Ave to stretch a bit, tested it, and called it. I hopped on the Q train, cursing under my breath. This was my third strain in the same number of months- first left calf, then right, then left again.

It wasn’t the mileage volume. Could it be the workout choices? I hadn’t been doing speed work consistently, focusing on endurance instead, which consisted of back-to-backs and long slow distance (LSD), which I’m very familiar with, and long slow hills (LSH), which was fairly new to me. Could it be these LSH workouts?

I had only done two LSH workouts in the season at this point. Finding a hilly course- really hilly- in New York City is a challenge. I did the first one upstate while visiting my parents.  I chose my usual Mariaville Road route and added in Putnam Road, which was a fairly steep climb. It was real work, for sure. The second brought me to the Williamsburg bridge where I did repeats. Once over the Manhattan bridge on my way, 5 repeats out and back of the Williamsburg Bridge, and one more over the Manhattan Bridge on the way home.  What a workout. 22.5 miles, 3.5 hours of glorious climbing and descending.

 

Strava screenshot of the Williamsburg Bridge repeats

But both these runs occurred weeks ago. Perhaps the accumulation of them and other workouts still led to the latest calf strain, but I didn’t like it. I need these workouts and I did them right. I managed my weeks right, I felt. I needed to find a better solution.

Coach Michael and I were coaching Team in Training marathon summer season together- he in Manhattan and I in Brooklyn. About a month earlier in an exchange of emails, Conlon referred me to a book, Ready toRun ,by Kelly Starrett. I picked it up and read through it. I thought it was a good book, full of helpful exercises. I agreed with the author's philosophies and have mined running knowledge from many of the same sources. I immediately put some of his teachings into practice.

Kelly stressed mob (mobility) exercises, something that I do with my runners as well. He stresses proper hydration and warm up and cool downs, things I teach as well… but again, was I practicing what I preached? Probably not as well as I could have been.  I decidedly upped my mobility game, spending an hour rolling and stretching 3 to 4 times a day. I started wearing calf compression sleeves while I slept and at work to aid in recovery, and I paid much more attention to my hydration. By the time of this calf strain, I had been doing these things for only three weeks or so. Maybe it was still early for the benefits to pay out and keep me injury free. Or maybe there was still more to explore.

I looked at one more thing- my running shoes. I like to think that I am fit and nimble enough to run in any shoe. I’ve spent years getting myself to this point.But I wasn’t doing any crazy experiments and as I’ve mentioned, my mileage wasn’t crazy. I had been wearing the Sketcher GoRuns for over a year now, logging 1,500 miles in them. And though I just started wearing the GoRun4s rather than the GoRun3s, they were so similar, I couldn’t believe they’d cause such issues. But maybe…

I am part of Sketchers test wearer program and send them periodic logs and comments on their shoes. When I first put the GoRun4s on, I noted the wider toebox and nicer upper, which were benefits. The shoe also felt more sure-footed, but not bulkier, which was nice. And also this:                

“feels like the shoe is flatter than the 3s”

Turns out it was. In the GoRun3s, the drop if 4mm if you remove the insole. In the GoRun4s, I read that the drop was 4mm and assume it was such without insoles, so I removed them. I think I was wrong. So for the past 3 months, I had been running on basically zero drop shoes. Could 4mm make such a difference? Yeah, maybe. With all these other things I considered- my mobility limits and different workouts, maybe 4mm contributed to the issue. Swallowing my pride, I bought a new pair of GoRun4s a half size larger and kept the insoles in.

Other than one hiccup, I’ve stayed strain-free since. I can’t say what exactly solved the issue. Perhaps it was a combination of all the above. But as long as this trend continues, I’m ok with not knowing for sure. I've been able to log some pretty fun miles the last couple months, highlights of which I will share tomorrow!