After three days rest that included ice/heat, NSAID's, ace wrap, elevation, etc., and some gentle stretching on the third day I thought I'd try a short, easy ride.
Big mistake.
I went out first on the Hampsten. My Achilles and the muscles on my lower calf felt sore from the start but I thought they might loosen up a bit once I got going. Went two miles and that wasn't happening, in fact they started to feel worse so I turned around.
Decided since I was well acclimated to the 'bent that I'd head out on it. Rode at a super relaxed pace (12 MPH average speed), used easy gears, spun up what little climbing I did. Rode 15 miles total. The leg felt fine while riding, not a twinge.
That night, I woke up at around 1 AM and went to the bathroom. Calf/Achilles felt pretty tight. Went back to bed. Woke up at 3 AM and it really hurt. Like "OMFG, I can't stand this" kind of hurt. I hadn't put the ace wrap on as I thought it'd be better to let it relax and breathe a bit. Got up at about 4 AM when I couldn't stand it anymore. Used the heating pad for a bit, rubbed on some CBD/Arnica (which doesn't really seem to help but can't hurt), wrapped it in the ace wrap then used the heating pad some more. Finally went back to sleep at around 5 AM.
So here we are two days later. Hurts to walk. Not bad but painful. No riding today (and it's supposed to get up to 78 today). I'm beginning to get vaguely concerned about the upcoming 1200K next month. The forecast is for pretty nice weather until Wednesday (it's Sunday as I write this) when it turns cold with a high of 46 and the "s" word in the forecast overnight when it gets down to 29. Sigh.
Oh, and I started dieting when I got here to Texas to take off the accumulated holiday pounds. Had lost 12 pounds and was pretty close to my goal. That's gone to hell.
Crap.
