I felt it coming earlier this week and, sure enough, my calves are revolting. It's mostly my left calf, but I can feel the right side wanting to get in on the action (or inaction).

They're sore and even walking is irritating. Going down stairs (of which I have two flights in my house) is downright painful.

Wearing heels to work yesterday didn't help. Come to think of it, I've been wearing them every day lately. Add to that my increased mileage, increased speed, running on an incline on the treadmill and the fact that I never stretch and, well, you can see why my legs are demanding a rest.

Here, according to the American Running Association are the risk factors that lead to calf strain -- and, uh, I can check almost every single one of these:

Causes of Calve strains
According to the American Running Association

Tight muscles: This is the main culprit behind pulled calf muscles. Here are some reasons why your muscles may be tight:

Exercise: Exercising your calf muscles causes them to shorten and tighten.

Heredity: Some people just naturally have tight, buncy calf muscles.

Wearing high-heeled shoes: Over time, this can cause the calf muscles to shorten.

Running on hills or uneven surfaces.

Overuse: Continually using the muscle will, over time, shorten it.

Lack of stretching: It's a fact that your calf muscles will shorten when you exercise. If you don't stretch them, you can usually take the blame for a pulled calf muscle.

Not warming up: If you exercise a cold muscle, you run the risk of pulling it.

Biomechanical problems: There could be some foot imbalance that causes your heel to be too far away from your calf, of your calf to be too short.

Worn out running shoes.

Muscle imbalances.

So, this morning when my alarm went off for my morning run, my calves were throbbing and I knew that even walking would be a stupid, stupid move.

"So, I'll sleep in. Live like the lazy half lives," I thought.

Only, I didn't because I couldn't sleep. Just laid there tossing and turning trying to figure out how long I'd be "down" and if I'd be able to meet my friends for that 17-miler on Saturday.

So, I got up and I poured over my running logs to see if I've had this type of injury before (I'm pretty sure I have) and how long it took to recover -- never did find that -- and how to treat it.

As you might suspect -- treatment is common-sense stuff -- rest, ice and stretching.

I contemplated wearing my Saucony's with my suit today, but opted for penny loafers. I really wanted to bring my ice pack so I could ice my calves all day, but I thought that might be too weird.

Ah... but, then, everyone knows runners aren't normal anyway. An ice pack strapped around my pantleg probably wouldn't have suprised anyone around here.

To hell with high heels!