Epson Salt Is My New Best Friend!

Met up with Team in Training last night to do a 3 mile run at UCSD (University of California at San Diego) in La Jolla. I feel very, very lucky to be training for a marathon in San Diego. There are so many beautiful running routes, and many are marked well with mile markers or plenty of water fountains and rest rooms. It's like the city planners were saying, you're in San Diego, YOU MUST RUN. I told my teammates last night that the San Diego "tax" is to be fit, as compared to the NYC "tax" where you spend at least $20 a day just to walk around. It really is wild to go into the supermarket and see the majority of people in shape.

I ran with a very nice teammate named Holly, and the run was going fantastic. In fact, I was just telling her how great she was going, and how great I was feeling- finally- when WHAM my calf seized up. Charlie horse! No fun. A few possible causes-

1. Dehydration (I only had a glass of water that day)

2. Overstretching (I showed Holly a deep stretch for the calves just before they seized up and I think I went a little TOO deep)

3. I was running mainly on the balls of my feet the day before and my calves hurt then, so I think running the next day just exacerbated the situation.

Today I felt like crap and was really questioning my sanity of doing a marathon. I've now got hip issues, calf issues, and my whole body is going, what the HECK do you think you're doing, you're 39 for chrissake! I remembered what my friend, a massage therapist, had said about an Epson salt bath, and so I tried it out this morning. WOW. Talk about night and day! I feel about 70% better...still sore, but my muscles aren't screaming. I love that it's an old school remedy, but still works so well. Epson salt, I adore thee.