Turtles, we might have a problem

I may be experiencing my first running injury. I'm not really sure it's at the point to call it an official injury. I think it could possibly develop into that if I 'm not careful!

Last week, we ran 4 miles on Tuesday and then 2 miles on Friday. Both of those days my legs (particularly my calves) bothered me. They usually loosen up as we run. But they didn't on either or those runs. I wasn't experiencing pain. That would make it an easy decision to stop. My legs were just tight (and not in the good way :) ). Anyway, we pushed through it. Well, this weekend I could barely straighten my legs to walk. I was hobbling around here like a little old lady. Again, no excruciating pain shooting anywhere. Just felt like I needed a good stretch but couldn't get one.

Beev and I tried to run yesterday. Again my legs would not loosen up so we could only do 1 mile. I got lots of advice from folks at work ranging from: push through it, you're fine, go to the hospital, get a massage and eat a banana (those are the highlights). Another friend recommended this thing in the gym called a foam roller. Never really seen one before but it's just a piece of hard foam in a cylindrical shape. You roll the muscle you want to massage back and forth over it and it helps to work it out. A kind of massage. I sat there for 45 minutes and my calf felt great!

We ran again this morning. My legs felt pretty good until we came down a hill after mile 2. So, we stopped at 2.25miles. My leg didn't hurt. It just tightened up again. Since we have a race on Saturday, I didn't want to push it and then not be able to run at all during the race.

We participate in the Stockshow Stampede 4 mile run on Saturday! Our goal is to run without stopping. I've only hit 4 miles once before and my legs have caused problems the past week or so. We'll just see how it goes. I'm nervous!

-Perry