Thu 1/26 - PM 40 minutes easy

Lincoln Woods. Infuriating failure, yet another miscalculation/setback with the fucking calf. This is starting to get into the same ugly compulsive territory as the hip travails of '09 with the endless scab-picking, although then I knew going in the kind of damage I was doing running on the thing. With this I have no idea until it goes on me. In this case, felt a tight knot in the calf at the end of the work day, figured it would loosen up if I started out slowly, it didn't of course. Then I felt it strain on a modest grade but with slippery footing to make it worse. Stopped to poke and prod at it for a few minutes, turned back for the road. Once there, found that anything resembling a hill stretched the muscle to its limit, decided to take the shortest, flattest route back to the car. Alas there is no truly flat terrain back there, and it didn't take much in the way of slope to aggravate the leg. By the end I was gingerly walking up the last few rises to avoid catastrophe. Trails muddy but in better shape than the ones I ran on yesterday. Although the last two days' runs of course led directly to this nonsense today. Got home and immediately set to crushing the calf with the lax ball, then the butt end of the massage stick which got more focused pressure. Then the ice pack, again. Back to square one, again.