This will be my last runlog update for 6-8 weeks if things are what they seem.

What did you do this time Harold?

Last Wednesday I was supposed to be having an easy recovery run, after a nice run on Tuesday. So, of course, I screwed up and turned it into a nice progression run where I ran pretty hard the last three miles of a 5.0-mile run.

At about 3.5 miles…

I had just turned around and played in traffic to cross Outer Civic Center Drive up by the Commerce Center lights and suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my left lower leg. I slowed down for a few steps and while the discomfort was still there it wasn’t anything unusual. At my age, I seem to have to these unexplained twinges during runs and they usually go away without any issues.

Plus I wanted to see if I could get down to my half marathon race pace for the last mile.

Mmmmm Houston we have a problem, that discomfort while not debilitating ain’t going away. Shut-up and finish the mile is what I told myself and did (yeah, I got down to the pace), but the discomfort wasn’t getting any better during that last mile. So I shut down the run when I got to 5.0 miles and just cruised it back to Planet Fitness to finish things up.

I haven’t run since.

The rest of the day Wednesday and all-day Thursday the leg talked to me about how stoopid I am. I don’t usually take anything for pain, but Wednesday afternoon I did take a couple of Aspirin, which helped and couple more on Thursday morning. The discomfort seemed to fade a bit by the afternoon, so I was thinking that it wasn’t anything serious.

Friday things felt good enough that I was able to do some work around the house, you know using the chainsaw to cut up a few trees, drag brush and chip what I could. With Saturday being a day to finish up what I didn’t get done the day before.

Yep, the leg hurt a bit, but not enough to stop me from getting stuff done.

Which meant that I hadn’t broken anything yet, but I had a pretty good idea that I probably had all the classic signs of a lower leg stress fracture, probably in the fibula since the discomfort is located more on the outside of the leg. I tested the theory by putting the buffer on the leg yesterday afternoon and immediately knew the answer.

So I will get to go to the doctor’s office at some point this week and might even listen to their advice for a change (this is the stuff they are good at), but either way for at least the next 6-8 weeks my runlog entries ain’t gonna be about me running.

There are going to posts about me whining, pissing and bitching about not running, all the crazy crap that I will be doing to attempt to speed up the healing process and how I am driving everyone including myself batshit crazy about not being able to run. 😉

Actually, I have a feeling that it will give the legs a chance to heal all the niggles that were accumulating, give me a reason to actually work out with weights at the gym and use the stationary bike for my cardio fix. Who knows I might even get my old mountain bike out and see how the leg feels on that in a week or two.

I have accepted the no running part as best as I can and the body is definitely telling me that running ain’t gonna happen for a while. Walking is enough of a challenge at this point. I just have to remember that I am not going to run again (unless there is a miracle of some sort) until sometime around August 1st and stick with that idea.

Which in the overall scheme of things is not that far away, now to let the body rest a bit, heal a lot and start working on my rehab routine, versus simply going out and trashing the old body again. It also means that I will have to look a LOT closer at what goes down the pie-hole if I do not have the benefit of running to cover-up some of my bad eating habits.

Now, what is the doctor’s number so I can call them tomorrow first thing and have them tell me what is actually going on with the old leg.

Yeah, it kind of sucks, but it just another day in the life of Harold being Harold.