Recovery is going well

When I woke up yesterday, my calves were still pretty fucked up from the elliptical and other stuff. They felt better than the day before, but when I first walked downstairs in the morning, I was saying "Ow, Ow, Ow" whenever I stepped on my left foot. I played with my walking gait to see how I could walk without it hurting.

I did a :35 abs/core workout early in the morning, but eventually, I had to decide if I was going to run. As soon as I put on my running shoes a little after noon, I guess the extra arch support (I use orthotics) was enough to correct whatever was making my calves hurt.

I still felt pretty fatigued, considering I did a really hard bike workout on Wednesday, and I knew I'd run a pretty good pace if I ran outside (it was a nice day), so in the spirit of continuing my recovery from NothingNess, I JFR'ed 7.5 miles. The nice thing about my run training over the winter is that longer runs are no big deal anymore.

My calves actually felt better for the run, which confirmed what I thought which was that they needed me to not be flat-footed, and with my new ultra lightweight running shoes, I spend more time on my toes, so it all worked out.

I got a massage last night--first one in 20 weeks! Yikes, that's a long time between. Yet, I've been doing fine, muscle-wise, until I a) started this NothingMan nonsense and b) started running on the roads. The massage was absolutely wonderful, and I'm going to get back on a schedule of every 2-3 weeks, just because it hurts so good. Turns out I had boatloads of trigger points from my left glutes all the way down (DUH, no wonder my calves felt fucked up), and in the vastus lateralis on both legs. My massage therapist did a new move on me which allowed him to really whale on my vastus lateralis, which I nicknamed the Vast-ectomy. If you saw how it was done, uh, let's just say if you were a guy you might think you were getting the other kind. My therapist also does some assisted stretches on me, and it was cool to see just how flexible my hamstrings are (or should we say overly flexible?). He did the stretch where I'm lying on my back and picks up one leg (straight knee), and gently pushes it towards my head. I achieved about a 120-degree angle with each leg! So I guess despite my crazy training lately, I've been improving my flexibility despite myself.

This morning when I woke up my calves felt pretty much back to normal. Surprisingly, I swam pretty well this morning, even though I felt worked over from the massage and the preceding training events. I'm about to repeat Wednesday's bike workout, and I hope I can nail it even better this time.

Tomorrow is supposed to be really nice, spring weather, and I'm going to treat myself to a long run on a trail I haven't been on since last August. I'm also looking forward to putzing around in the flower beds and getting really dirty!