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.

I Think I'm Splinty

After digging around online here, here and here, I've come to the conclusion that I've developed shin splints. Well, Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome, if you want to get picky.

In sticking with the plan I've upped my miles quite a bit, which I'm sure is a contributor. Really, I think there's many factors here:

• Increased mileage
• Primarily running on concrete
• My clydesdale status
• The hills of San Francisco (I've had my legs get tweaky just walking around here; starting to incorporate hill repeats have undoubtedly been stressful for the pegs)

What to Do?

I really, really, really don't want to stop training. Hopefully I won't have to.

I've flagged some videos as favorites on YouTube which offer some recovery suggestions that'll hopefully help. Since I've made a list of probably causes, I guess I'll make a list of solutions:

• Religiously using the R.I.C.E. method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation)
• Doing every run I can at Kezar track and avoiding concrete like the Plague
• Massaging the soleus muscle (as shown in some of the vids)
• Doing strengthening exercises (again, see vids)
• Stretching like a monkeyplucker
• Keeping my eye on it. The last thing I want is a lasting injury, and if it gets worse then I'll have to hang up the Asics for a bit and swim or bike.

I take some solace in knowing that this is a profoundly common problem, but still, getting shin splints makes me feel like a rookie jackanus.

Oh well. You take the good, you take the bad, you take 'em both and there you have [finish this sentence].