Injury Update: Sleeping in "THE BOOT" and Running Again!

Eight days after the TC 10 Mile, I had some calf pain on a long run. I took it easy for most of October (still running pretty normally, but without speed work), and I thought I had it under control. But it came roaring back about 10 days ago as I noted in this post. So I started wearing the "night splint" to bed:

It helps keep my calf "stretched" and doesn't allow me to sleep all night with my toes a bit more pointed which would allow my calf to totally relax. This way, it feels relaxed and loose when I first step out of bed because it keeps my lower leg "lengthened," instead of feeling tight because the muscle/tendon was "shortened" all night. I add the red sock for some padding under 2 of the straps. It's NOT as bad to sleep in as it might look! Really!

As I posted about on Monday, I cut last week Friday's long run to just 1 mile on the treadmill before I thought I could use some rest. I didn't bike on Saturday. I totally skipped my long run on Monday.

And then I tried running on Wednesday - it went OK. I "felt" my calf from about 0.5 through 1.5 miles, but then it felt OK until I wrapped up with 5 miles. Then I didn't bike on Thursday, but instead swam again (like I did on Tuesday) as that's easier on my calf.

And then Friday's run felt A-OK! I still don't trust it though, so instead of doing a 5.5 mile "river loop" like this that I've done for YEARS...

My normal Wednesday easy runs or non-speedwork Friday runs.
I'm ALWAYS doing this loop. (Half-mile splits shown.)

... I instead looped around my neighborhood making sure to not ever get much farther than 1 mile from home so I could turn back it something started to hurt suddenly:

This also kept me from having to run back up the big hill from the river.

I did over an hour on the trainer earlier today, and things feel OK. (It was just an easy spin.) I'd love to try a shorter version of my normal long run (which includes some effort in the middle) on Monday, but we'll see how the weekend feels and decide if that's a good call or not come Monday.

Back with some pics from our Yellowstone trip shortly!