Setback!

Went out for a run on Monday morning, increasing my running section to 1 minute 30 seconds. All was going well for the first few repeats until about a mile into the run. I felt a twinge in my right upper calf. As I continued my run I could feel the twinge more and more. Thoughts quickly came to me of the pulled calf that I've been trying to recover from for the past four months. Doom and gloom!
The pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't continue my run but I am concerned that if I continue running as I am then it will make the pain worse and I'll be back at square one. The good news is that although the pain is in my right leg it is not in the same place as before so I think it's just a slight strain caused by overworking it too soon. Ever the optimist!
I spent the evening icing my calf with a bag of frozen peas that I always keep just in case of injuries and using my Omni massage roller ball that is excellent at causing the maximum amount of pain with the tiniest bit of effort!!

Instrument of torture

It's supposed to help break down scar tissue and I don't know if it does but it bloody hurts like hell!
I'll probably miss my next scheduled run or two until the pain subsides and start back again using my normal running shoes until my calf feels strong enough again to use my Vibrams.
To help strengthen my calves and once the pain has gone I will need to do regular stretches (which I've never done enough of!) as well as use my wobble board that should help improve my calf muscles and core strength. I bought it a couple of months ago and became rather good at it. To start with I felt like Bambi on ice but once I got to grips with it then I could stand on it for about 30 seconds at a time and even managed to do it on one foot only. Here's a fuzzy photo of my board:

Wobble board

I've noticed that the blossom is coming out nicely in the trees now and took a photo on one of my regular routes:

Blossom!

Anyway, enough rambling I need to get back to icing and painful massage. Here's my run from Monday, I hope to update another post as soon as my calf pain eases up.