Damn! That Felt Good!

It was seriously, seriously gorgeous out today. Picture postcard beautiful weather. Clear blue skies, very low humidity, nice and cool temps—really, all you could ask for.

Since I'm Johnny Seasonal Affective Disorder, today was all sunshine and lollipops for me. Good times.

I haven't run in 6—count 'em one two three four five SIX days—my last run was a painful slog through the Presidio last Friday. Having decided what I was going to do about my splintiness, I've been all about the Ace bandage, the ice pack, the elevation and the not-running.

I felt like today was the day to get back out and see how recovery was going. I'm not even sure where I should be with my training plan, but I arbitrarily decided that running 5 miles would be a good test for my shins and a decent workout as the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon draws ever nearer.

My shins have been feeling like they're coming along, but the first 2 miles of the run had me doubting my recovery efforts. As typical with mild shin splints, the pain went away once I got warmed up. By mile 3 I felt pretty damn good, and mile 5 was easier than all of them.

Crazily enough, I clocked an average 10:15 pace, which is actually pretty fast for a slow mofo like myself.

I drove home riding high and feeling really good. Ice packs on, Ace bandages wrapped, 600 mg of Ibuprofen per @LosBee, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (sugar and protein), a little box of raisins, and I'm set for the evening.

Hopefully (HOPEFULLY) we're on the right track here and things progressively get better. I'd love to be ready for the half marathon, and really love to not injure myself trying to prepare for it. Here's to tomorrow being good, and hopefully getting a good long run in very soon.