Injury and running

Last Thursday I hurt myself by kicking a kickball. Yeah, I know, sounds stupid, doesn't it? But, that is exactly what happened. I was pitching the ball to a 4th grade student who didn't kick it very far. It came right to me and I was going to try to help it go a little farther into the field. When I kicked it, I felt a couple of pops in my right calf. The pain took me to the ground. I didn't want to freak the kids out, so I hobbled out of the way and sat in the grass. The pain was pretty intense and brought tears to my eyes. I am glad I had sunglasses on! I sat there until it was time to go inside. It took me a while to walk in, but I did it under my own power. It was sheer determination and maybe a little pride that allowed me to walk in by myself.

Once inside the pain didn't ease up. In fact, I think it got worse. I had pain from my calf all the way up into my right glute muscle. I couldn't get comfortable sitting or standing. It even made me a little nauseous. I tried to make it through the afternoon, but I just couldn't. I was in too much pain.

Around 1:30, I checked the boys out of school and headed home. Drew was scheduled to work a track meet that evening and I knew he wouldn't be able to get them after school. We picked Addie up at Miss Linda's and headed home. All I could think about was getting home and taking some pain medicine. I had a few hydrocodones left over from a procedure in the fall and they were calling my name! When Drew learned that I was going to take some heavy duty narcotics, he asked his fellow coaches if he could go home to take care of me and the kids. I was so thankful! I took my hydrocodone, some ibuprofen and some Simply Sleep. I wanted to sleep the pain away!

I slept fitfully and when I woke up the next morning my leg and foot was pretty swollen. I seriously considered staying home, but I had things I needed to do at school. I kept telling myself not to be a wimp and to get moving. I did and made it through the day.

Each day it got a little better. I still have a slight limp, but I think it is healing. Tonight Drew noticed that my leg is bruised from my calf all the way down past my ankle into my foot. It isn't very dark, so I never noticed it. I never went to a doctor, but I am pretty sure (after consulting Dr. Google) that I have a grade 2 sprain in my right calf. It will probably take several weeks for it to heal completely. I am hopeful that it won't take that long!

On a slightly related note, Bryson told me that he wants to start running with me! This is exciting to me because I have been hoping he would become interested in running/working out with me. We have decided that I will train him to run a 5K with me at the end of May. I am hopeful that we can start running this week. I may not do too much running at first, but he needs to get started if he is going to build up any kind of endurance. I really want him to set the pace. I am not going to push him too hard. I want this to be a positive experience for him that will hopefully be the start of his love of exercising and competing. I will let you know how it goes!