Injury-Induced Depression

I had good intentions. I planned on resting my leg until this Sunday and seeing how it felt from there. Actually wait, let's back up so I can fill you in completely on the issue. Two weekends ago, I ran my 8 miles for half marathon training. The roads were slippery and I didn't want to chance it, so treadmill it was. I felt mostly good throughout the whole run, but towards the end I could feel my calves getting a little tight, which isn't totally abnormal for me. When I got done running, I stretched on the floor for a while and when I got up, it hurt to extend my left leg to walk. I figured that I just pulled something, so I spent the next few days hobbling, icing, rolling, and stretching the crap out of my legs.

I tried to run again the next weekend, no go. I said, "okay, I'll be really good and give it a complete week off and stretch and ice and hopefully we'll be good to go." That lasted until two days ago. I had been out walking around while shopping with my sister and my leg was feeling great. It was so warm out when I got home and I was dying to run, so I made the idiot decision to go out for a mile or two. I knew before I had gone half a mile that I shouldn't have done it. I felt the tightness behind my left knee start again and the pain shortly after that, but I ran two miles anyway. Towards the end, I was in tears realizing that this would probably be my last run for the foreseeable future.

As I broke down in tears on the porch, I couldn't stop agonizing over why this would happen. I had been so careful to NOT get injured since I spent most of last summer in physical therapy and not running. I was cautious. I've been cross training and I didn't try to increase my speed; I took my runs nice and slow and easy. What the heck did I do wrong this time? I guess my dream at a sub-2 hour half marathon is going on the back burner yet again.

I spent yesterday on the couch and called my physical therapist to make an appointment Monday after work. I have a bad feeling about what he is going to say, but I'm trying to keep my hopes up. Maybe with a couple weeks of rest and some KT tape, I'll be healed enough for our 15k in three weeks and half marathon in four. That's the best I could hope for right now.