Compartment syndrome occurs when your muscles swell but are restricted my the membrane that surrounds your muscles, the muscle fascia. The higher pressure blood from your arteries gets pumped into the muscle but the lower pressure blood in your veins can't get out of the muscle because of all the pressure from the swelling. If this happens quickly, as in acute compartment syndrome, you can actually lose circulation in the affected body part as well as damage the nerves so you need an emergency fasciotomy where, basically, you get your leg surgically fileted open to cut the muscle fascia and release the pressure. It's not pretty when it happens. I saw it happen to Kim Betz, the 1987 NCAA Women's Cross County Champion, when I was at IU. It happened to her after a meet in 1988 and I don't think she was ever the same after that. Luckily, I didn't have the acute kind. With a low grade (sometimes called chronic) compartment syndrome your muscles swell and they feel firm and painful but you still have circulation and sensation. I get it in my lower legs every now and then. When it happens it's very painful when I move my foot and do activities like push off my foot, plus it feels like I'm walking around with 20 lb weights strapped on to each leg. I tend to feel it most in my soleus which is the muscle that's underneath and below my gastrocnemius (i.e. the calf muscle). When it happens all I can do is ice and rest the area until it goes away. Getting an elective surgery to open up that muscle fascia is on option but it doesn't always help. I had a friend who had that surgery. He had a long painful recovery so I will stick to ice and rest.
In the meanwhile... I went a little crazy on committing myself to future races.
I decided I wanted to qualify for Boston again. I know. It's a sickness. I picked the Mill Race Marathon as my qualifying attempt. It's on Saturday September 23rd, the weekend after the Boston 2018 qualifying window closes. I am going to try and qualify for Boston 2019. I will be 50 on race day in 2019 so I get another 5 minutes. If the current qualifying standards don't change my qualifying time will be 4:00. I'm convinced I can run that. In fact, I am still going for sub-3:50.
Then I signed up for the Monumental Marathon on Saturday November 4th. This is for redemption. I had such a bad race there in 2013 I want to do it again to run it better. Plus this will be my back up marathon in case Mill Race blows up.
Carmel Marathon on Saturday March 31st offered a crazy race special for a couple days last week where the entry fee was $31. Carmel hadn'r really been on my radar but I pulled the trigger anyway and signed up for it too, mainly because it's a local race and I know a bunch of people that are running it. FOMO I suppose.
The 500 Festival Mini-Marathon, which I think might be called the Indy Mini these days, also had a sign up special right after this year's race where it was $60 to sign up for next year. I still want a PR on that course so I signed up for that too. Might as well commit myself while the prices are low :)
Mainly for future reference for myself, this is what the races cost...
2017 Mill Race Marathon $60
2017 Monumental Marathon $80
2018 Carmel Marathon $31
2018 Indy Mini Marathon $60
As far as my running week...
Sunday 5/7 - Zero miles. It stayed dry and sunny so I worked in my yard all day.
Monday 5/8 - Zero miles. Really really sore from yardwork, plus my legs still hurt but it was still dry and sunny so more yard work!
Tuesday 5/9 - Zero miles. It's suppose to rain again so I did some MORE yardwork before going to work.
Wednesday 5/10 - 3 miles. Finally woke up able to push off my foot without too much pain so I did some easy miles on the Monon in the evening. Good stretch and PT exercises afterwards and I felt back to normal after my shower.
Thursday 5/11 - 6 miles. Nice easy miles on the Monon.
Friday 5/12 - Zero miles. Too much stuff to do at home before going to work in the afternoon.
Saturday 5/13 - Zero miles. Again, tons of house cleaning and grocery shopping to do before going to work in the afternoon. Got absolutely killed at work.
9 total miles this week.
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