When this calf problem first started in mid-December, I never thought it would keep me from running for so long (7 weeks and counting). After so long without being able to head out of the house and run I am getting 'cabin fever'. I didn't realise how much I miss my running until I wasn't able to do it. And having been injured before, I know when I do go for a run I am going to have to start from scratch again. And to begin with, the 'run' will actually be a slow jog. Now then .. where did I leave my running shoes? Ahhhh .. here they are .. covered in a fine layer of dust.
At this weeks physio session there was another improvement in the angle that I can get my feet to when doing the 'point toes towards knees' exercise. At the time of the injury the left (injured) and right (okay) legs could only manage 4/10 degrees respectively. Jayne (my physio) described 10 degrees as the 'danger zone' when problems can begin to occur. After several weeks of treatment and lots of stretching by me, the figures this week were 14/15 degrees. The maximum I can probably expect to get to is 15 degrees on each foot so I know I am almost there and at next week's appointment, I'm hoping I can get the left leg to 15 degrees as well. When I asked about starting running again Jayne suggested I leave it another week or two. I'm happy to take her advice - I would rather wait before starting than trying too soon and causing any more problems.
In other news, I've treated myself to a copy of 'Fast Exercise' by Michael Mosley (author of the 'Fast Diet' aka. The 5:2 Diet). Fast exercise is about high-intensity interval training (HIT) and is proving to be an interesting read. It seems you can get as much benefit from short, high-intensity exercise as you can from the longer, less intense type. I was already familiar with the concept of 'interval training' - the club sessions sometimes involve hill intervals where we run uphill on Tetbury Road as fast as we can and recover as we jog back down and repeat that several times. This book seems to confirm the benefits of that sort of training. I'll suspend judgement on it until I've finished reading the book and have given it a go. But I know I need to kick-start myself into getting fitter (and losing weight) ready for the C2C walk in July and I hope this book will do the trick. I'm planning to use it as the basis for a daily/weekly routine to get myself fitter and improve my suppleness. The current problems with my calf were a wake-up call to show me how lack of stretching can lead to problems.
