My greatest fear

Stats for the past 3 days:
Miles ran: 0
Bananas eaten: 6
Nights I've gone to bed prior to 8pm: 3

Despite all this, last night I came face to face with my greatest fear.

If only it were that easy.

Not needles or dogs, although those are both terrifying.

Leg cramps. I swear, if you ask any of my BFFs what my greatest fear is, they'll tell you dehydration, and it's not because it can throw months of training out the window during a race, it's because of leg cramps. 

Specifically, the kind where a giant ball forms in your calf, and wakes you up in a panic about half a second before the pain sets in. Please tell me someone else has experienced this.

This event is so traumatizing for me that I remember exactly the last time it happened, so I know it was 10 years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. Actually, realizing that I was a sophomore in college 10 years ago was also pretty traumatizing. 

Since I'd gone to bed earlier than my 3rd graders, what I considered "the middle of the night" was probably what normal adults consider "evening". So when I woke up screaming my head off (remember how I mentioned yesterday that I have zero pain tolerance?) I expected Eric to come running in immediately. He never even noticed.

Luckily for me, my mom knows everything, and I have no idea when or why, but at some point she'd taught me to flex my foot to stretch the muscle if this ever happened, and it worked like a charm. I think that's the first time I've ever remained calm in the face of panic and actually thought through what to do.

Once I regained control I limped to the living room where Eric was passed out in front of the TV to inform him of this horrific turn of events and inform him of his failings as a protector. He didn't really buy into my "it could have been an intruder murdering me!" argument and kept insisting that no one was going to use grappling hooks to break into our third floor window Spiderman style.

He's out there, waiting for me.

The point of the above statistics was that I shouldn't have been dehydrated or lacking potassium, both common causes of cramps. So I don't know why this gremlin from hell came back to haunt me in my calf. Here's hoping I have another 10 cramp free years now.

I'm going to start wearing these to bed.

So in news other than more proof of how pathetically babyish and whiny I am, my Achilles has been feeling totally back to normal, even on my feet all day at work. The big test is the one time each day that I go down stairs, when I leave my apartment in the morning, and even that felt fine this morning. 

I took a 2 mile test run tonight after work and it felt completely fine (although my other leg was sore from the nighttime cramping). Naturally, I did all sorts of foam rolling, stretching, icing, and compression after. I'm planning on doing about 6 miles tomorrow morning, and hoping that will be my official triumphant return. Amazing how listening to doctor's advice and resting when something hurts instead of blindly plowing ahead because I need to get the miles in actually works! I really need to remember this lesson in the future.

I'm really not alone in these weird calf cramps am I?

What's your greatest mundane fear?