Calf Update

Well, it hurts still, so that's not great.
I've only gotten one 5 miler done on it since the marathon. We took a week off, then headed out on Monday. It was still sore, but by mile 2 the pain was increasing, which wasn't great. It seemed better if I didn't fully push off on it, so that got me to the end of 5 miles, but isn't a long term solution.
I've done 2 workouts on it, and for the most part it is ok. Some of the cardio is painful, like Plie hops, jumping jacks, jump rope....and I feel it during lunges, but not as bad. So what does it feel like? Um, hard to describe, but here's an attempt. It is sore, like just a tired, overused muscle sore, all the time. But there is also a lot of movement going on in there. Like twitchiness, popcorn, worms wiggling under the skin feeling?? Very strange stuff. This is mostly in one area, where I have veins that most the time look normal, but when I exercise they pop out. The veins are a concern because after the marathon I had a very small, hard, painful knot in one of the veins. Like rock hard. You could see it from the surface, and even to just run my finger over the skin was extremely painful. Brian did some research and rattled off some name for it, said to keep it up, heat compresses, and compression and it should go away in a few days. I had been keeping it up with ice a few times a day, didn't have any way of keeping compression on the area, and didn't want to use heat...yes, I am stubborn. But it did go away, now it just hurts in the general area of the veins.
I keep thinking I just strained it. Running on it after it had cramped like that wasn't genius. It obviously didn't' help it any. Maybe just take a running break for another week and see how it feels??? But, then the more I read, the more compression of some sort seems to be the way to go. Vein, and calf pain are common in the land of running. A lot of calf pain is just unexplainable calf pain. The one thing I read over and over again that helps is either compression socks, or leg sleeves. I see these both all the time out on the trail and in races. Brands like Zoot, Zensah, CEP, and many others are made specifically for running and Triathlon. So, we ventured down to Sports Basement. I tried on some socks, and a leg sleeve. The sock was a knit material, which I didn't love, and the sleeve seemed a bit short, so I got nothing. I really wanted a brand that I had at least heard of, read reviews of, and that was known in the 'running world'. Zensah fit those criteria, and we ended up last night at Road Runner Sports where they had an excellent selection of socks and sleeves. They also carry Moeben arm sleeves which are very hard to find in store, so that was a neat find. Anyways, I tried on a few things, in a few colors, and ended up with these. At one point I had a pink one on one leg, and black on the other. Pink looked soo girly, and black looked more hard core...so I went with black. Hopefully these will do the trick. If they don't' alleviate the pain, at least they will help w/the veins. The plan was to test them out on our lunch time run, a 5 miler from Brian's office, but after his accident this morning, I am not sure how he's going to feel by noon. Either way, whenever I do wear them for the first time, I will let you know what I think of them.