Cruelty

I had felt fairly miserable on Saturday after the issues with my calves. I have felt over the last 4 or so weeks that the only thing letting me down at the moment is the cramp that causes all of my runs to end in an agonising walk.

Shaun emailed me with loads of information on vegetarian foods/supplements and told me his beliefs on the matter (it turns out he has been either vegetarian or vegan for about 25 years now). I swear, between the two of them (him and William), there really isn't anything they don't know! It's no wonder I have come on so much since enlisting their help.

So, on Monday I bought a couple of supplements that I need, sent off everything for my Indian visa and booked an appointment with the physio to try and sort this calf issue out once and for all.

Yesterday I went to that appointment and had a good check over. Apparently I have good muscle definition and everything is aligned well from my back down and nothing glaringly obvious was wrong. He messed around bending my legs this way and that and examined my calves, which he said were well defined, right slightly bigger than the left but both felt "grotty". Apparently grotty is not a technical term, but I suppose it sums up everything that is going on. He then proceeded to give me a sports massage which was absolute agony. I laughed for much of it for some reason (maybe it was a knee jerk reaction instead of crying) and I have to say Tim was very cruel and nipped and squeezed and pressed so hard that I shouted quite a few "Owww"s out! I didn't swear though... I think he was impressed with that!

So, today I was to go for a short run to 'flush everything through'. My calves have felt very tender all day and I have a couple of small bruises on them, so I was surprised to do a 30 minute run on the treadmill with not an ache or anything. My stomach was quite crampy, however has been like that all day, which I suspect is from the pill injection I had on Monday evening. It will probably be like that on and off for a week or so!

In other news, I emailed Dhirender in India about water for the ultra. I had recently read that the KTM that took place over the weekend had water in cups. It turns out Bangalore will also have water in cups (however they use 20 litre bottled water to fill the cups). So, I now have to decide do I go with the cups/take a bottle to fill or take a Camelbak. I am currently undecided.

I bought a load of coconut water today (it's supposed to be better than sports drinks for electrolytes only more natural... of course). It was absolutely gorgeous and I could easily drink that while running. I have a litre to take on my long run on Saturday to see how I get on. Who knows... maybe I will wear a small Camelbak with that in and just drink water out of the cups. It's all trial and error I suppose!