Pain Pain Go Away

With now less than one week to go until Race Day, I'm starting to get a bit nervous. Actually, yesterday I got really nervous, if not downright discouraged.

On Friday I had to get an easy 3-miler in. I did so at the gym before heading to work. No big deal. I felt good, though I still had that discomfort in my left hamstring/calf. I use that slash because the discomfort is literally right behind my knee, and I'm just not 100% sure of the source. It appears to be my hammy, but I could be wrong.

Well, on Saturday, I woke up to 45 degree temps. Even though I only had 8 miles to do for my last long run before the race, I still had to get to the lake by 6am. Lori was standing up in a wedding Saturday afternoon, and I had to leave to drive her to the start of the day's festivities at 8:00am. So that meant an early start.

I didn't mind getting to Creve Coeur Lake that early. Still dark as hell, but lit up with a ginormous moon hovering overhead. I actually got to watch the "moonset" during the first mile of the run. The giant ball in the sky slowly lowered onto the horizon before disappearing. It was pretty badass.

I ran the first 6 miles quite comfortably, taking my time and just enjoying the cooler weather. It was actually kinda cold the first mile or so. At about the 6-mile mark, I decided I was going to try to run a little faster to bring home the final long run. I didn't get more than a quarter mile into that trot and my left hamstring started to bother me. And about a mile later it was downright annoying me to no end. I had to compensate for the discomfort, and mentally I just shut down. I had race day visions of my leg just shutting down on me and having to walk the majority of it. Or trying to do a walk run as I fight through the pain and discomfort.

This all started on my last 20-mile run a couple weeks ago, when I felt the discomfort start about half-way through that run, and just powered through it. It's been with me ever since in varying levels of discomfort, not necessarily pain. And when I was in Vegas last week, it didn't really bother me much at all.

With the level of discomfort where it was Saturday, and my feeling of urgency, I finished my run and quickly headed to Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as the good folks on Fast Money on CNBC like to call it). My massage therapist recommended a homeopathic anti-inflammatory gel called Traumeel for some inflammation I was having on my right achilles. That has gone away, but the inflammation in my left leg hasn't. I was hoping the taper would help make it go away, but not so much. Now I'm worried. I'm two days into using the Traumeel. I feel good right now, but there is definitely still discomfort there.

Lori showed me some stretches to do, and I'll be icing on and off all week. The question is, do I head to a doc and is there anything they can do at this point. Do I want to try a cortisone shot? Is it even that bad that I could need that. Or would another week of tapering, a few extra days off, the Traumeel, and some good stretching be all that I need to be on my game come 10/11. Ugh! Decisions, decisions.

This sucks. Stay tuned!