Out of the closet

So I was finally able to run again tonight. Woo Hoo!! Big deal, you say? Well, for me it kind of was. Last week, Wednesday night, during my team's swim workout I got a major calf cramp 5 minutes into the workout. Worst one ever! I spent the next 45 minutes massaging and stretching it, but to no avail. I woke up the next morning - couldn't walk. Got a 15 minute "quickie" professional massage just on that calf during lunch - was able to walk, but could still feel it. Tried running on the treadmill that evening prior to the team run - no go. Friday brought walking normally (with slight discomfort not to be confused with pain), but still not able to run. The extra pounding running brings was aggravating this problem somehow. That following Saturday morning I was able to swim and bike, but not run. I was really hoping to this day because it was our final mock tri before the real deal. I decided to not even try running until I could no longer feel any discomfort. At this point, only 2 weeks before the triathlon, I figured I could really screw things up if I did too much too soon and then not have time to recover. I've been known to be stubborn and to try to workout through the pain (see Phoenix marathon training with a groin strain for example), not the best idea. So tonight I got up the gumption to try it again. The first few steps were a little hesitant and my calf was growling at me, but I ignored it like an Ex and kept going. I'm glad I did too, the longer I went, the more it loosened itself up and the better it felt. The calf felt better during the run, the rest of the body necessarily didn't. It had been 8 days since I ran last and I could tell, I still kept a decent pace tonight though (I hope). I'm sure my next run will feel better though, it's just that first one back that usually sucks. Only 10 days until the tri though, not much time to recoup lost workouts.
I'm a mentor on this season's TNT tri team. A couple of my mentees hadn't reached their fundraising minimum with the deadline fast approaching so I threw a quick event together to raise some money for them and now I'm beginning to get nervous about it. What I did was hold a drawing - buy some tickets to get to do something fun. The drawing was today and the winner wasn't necessarily who I was hoping for. Here's the deal, the winner gets to decorate my hair - cut/shave/dye/color/etc. - however they want to next week sometime and I have to keep it that way through the race. A group of coworkers who went in together won the drawing and now I'm leery about what they have in store for me. I could hear them plotting and laughing all afternoon. There are some guidelines they have to adhere to, but very few. I'll try to get a picture posted next week. This was actually a fun thing to throw together at the last minute, I only wish I had thought of it sooner and had more time to sell tickets. It's something I'll keep in mind for the next time I fundraise and will promote it at the beginning of the season and sell tix throughout. Maybe not cut my hair the whole time to give whoever more options and really get some crazy designs. I'll let you know.
I've been outed. It took all of 3 days for this blog to become known to others. It could've taken 2 had someone put the pieces together of all the clues they were given (pratically every letter spelled out for them!) That was of my own accord though. A few conclusions went into reversing my initial thought of waiting to tell. First, I guess I always knew this wasn't going to remain hidden forever and people would eventually read it anyway so I might as well tell them upfront. Second, after the first post or two, not that those posts go into anything deep and personal, putting my stuff "out there on the web" wasn't as big of a deal as I thought. Third, if I'm going to type something, someone else besides me might as well read it to make it worth the effort. Fourth, I read other people's blogs so I guess I thought it was only fair to return the favor and let them read mine. You're welcome! ;) One of these days I'll play around with my blog and get links set up to their's and other sites of interest. Don't hold your breath though. I guess I'll need to ask them what blogging etiquette there is - can I just go ahead and do that on my own or is it proper to get their permission first to link to them? What say ye Captain Cartwheel?