Calf Issues - 9 weeks out from IMCDA
I'm not sure if this topic belongs in the Medical Help Forum or the Training Forum - b/c I've got a coupe of questions that fall into both buckets. I vented a bit on the home page & got some good feedback so that prompted me to start a thread. I'll start here and see what happens.
Context: Halfway through the run at IM Cali 70.3 (March 29) I started getting some pretty bad pain in my left calf....to the point that at mile 7ish I had to resort to a walk, stretch, run/hobble, walk stretch run/hobble, repeat for 6+ miles. Killed my race - finished with a 2:02 half marathon which was discouraging. Anyway - this was a new pain for me. I'd experienced some hamstring issues on that same leg in the past and it actually reappeared in a minor fashion about a week out of the race. Within a few days of getting back to Texas I got a deep tissue massage and set up some time to see my ART guy. Fast forward to today and in that period I've seen my ART guy a handful of times and I've attempted a run on 4/12 & 4/13. My ART guy and I discovered that the left side is weak...real weak...& that the whole chain is tight. So I've started back up my glute exercises to try and strengthen that up more.
On the 12th I got two miles in and bonked (had come off a 4 hour bike ride where I ignored nutrition for the final 45 minutes - shame on me). On the 13th I managed to run 5k - but when I was done there was some pain in my calf. Between the 13th and today I've done no outside running. Biking and swimming cause me no problems so I've been logging hours there and I've tried aqua jogging in the deep end of the pool one time with no pain, but not sure . I went out this morning after my swim to test the calf - I'd had no pain in the prior couple days and it was feeling good. I got 4.5 miles into the run and the calf tightened/locked up again. And now it hurts again - stink.
With that here are some of my questions:
- Should I try to get an MRI or some x-rays on my calf to determine if there is a stress fracture or if this is purely muscular?
- IMCDA is 9 weeks or so away. This will be my first full IM - so I don't know what I don't know here...and I'm trying to not freak out even though I've already trying to figure out how I'm going to make the leap from 70.3 to 140.6. I'm thinking worst case scenario here - but let's assume that whatever the issue is it requires that I take the next 4-6 weeks off running outside. If that's the case and I focus on the bike, the swim and aqua jogging. Is that going to kill me for IMCDA? Or....all things being equal, will I be able to maintain my fitness enough to where I'd still be able to go?
- Is aqua jogging supposed to totally replace outside running on a 1:1 basis? So if the schedule calls for a 90 minute run should I be trying to get 90 minutes of aqua jogging in?
Appreciate your help here...
- David