This marathon training season has been wonderful so far, but only so far. I was grounded because of an injury / fatigue for 2 weeks. There was excruciating pain in my calves, even after a mile of running. So i did what most of the runners would do, drop the mileage or stop running, keep icing and massaging the area and then again do a litmus test after some days. I took about a week's break and tried doing an easy run again, the pain came back at 800 mts.
I was terribly depressed, became grumpy and irritable, thinking that my SCMM dream is over for this season as well. Thought of visiting Dr Gladson for an expert opinion, after 2 weeks of rest, still the pain did not going away then I guess it was time to meet the doctor. Dr. Gladson is a sports and exercise medicine doctor in Bangalore, he is also a barefoot marathoner and also runs a marathon training program under the name "Raramuri Runners". In short he is the guy who can relate to your running related problems the best!
I met him on a Saturday after missing my long run for that week as well, was very depressed, but all for no reason, he checked my calves, and came to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with my calves. Infact calves pain is just a symptom, the main culprit is the thigh muscles. since they are terribly fatigued, the calves are working more in order to support the dynamics of running. He made me do some stretches and asked me to run, I was feeling much better. 2 more days of stretching and I was back on track doing my speed runs! Yay!
Moral of the story
- DO NOT delay taking an expert advice if the pain continues for more than 2 runs. I wasted 2 weeks of training on something which could have been cured in 2 days of stretching.
- Try and workout the warmup pattern for your body, for some people 1K works, for some 1 mile. I do 2K of warmup and cool down
- There is no alternative to a good warmup, cooldown and stretches before and after the run. They might not matter during the run, but definitely helps you in staying injury free
- The pain because of any fatigue can be dealt with stretching. Stretch religiously, because you would not even realize when a fatigue gets translated to an injury
- The most important part in any marathon training is the sleep. Try and take atleast 7 hours of good sleep every night. On the weekend try and grab a couple of naps after the long run as well
- Always have light breakfast before the long run, helps in taking you a long way ahead, literally
- Nutrition is very very important. Try and get a good protein snack after any run that you do. I stick to egg whites. You would see a faster recovery once you start following it
Some stretches that might help in this kind of pain and fatigue
