Running Chick

I'm back after a short hiatus. I had to put my running shoes on the shelf for 10-ish days due to shin splits or Achilles tendinitis or whatever it was that I had. In the meantime, I rode my bike like a fool.

I did a 17-miler on the 18th

Then a short 12-miler on the 19th

Finally a monster 40-miler on the 21st. I actually think it was around 42 miles, because I forgot to turn my Garmin back on after I made a short water stop. Whoops.

Last night, I picked up on my running schedule again, with a short two-miler. I thought I ran it at a fairly conservative pace until I uploaded my track from my Garmin and found that I ran my fastest two miles ever. Go figure. Anyway, my legs were much, much happier after their running vacation and, aside from the normal twinges here and there, I experienced no real pain or discomfort. When I got home I stretched a bunch and iced both lower legs for 20 minutes. I have a hunch that my leg issues are caused by tight calf muscles, which I can't seem to get rid of no matter how much stretching I do. I think I might start using the heating pad on them before my runs and see if that helps. I've had luck with that method in the past on my hip, maybe it'll work on my calves, too.

I have eight miles on tap for Wednesday. I'm a little bit concerned about this run as it'll be the true test to see if my legs have fully recovered.

Ooh, I almost forgot that I wore my new, fancy heart rate monitor on yesterday's run. My highest heart rate was 181 (going uphill) and my lowest was 153 (downhill). It seemed to hover right around 165-170 on the flats. This information would probably be more useful if I knew
how to interpret the results!

I am having a really hard time keeping up with my blogging responsibilities. I suppose it's because my last few runs have been horrible because my shin splints are back to haunt me. Posterior shin splints, to be precise. Argh, what a pain they are - literally. After the crappy run I had on Monday I again gutted out six miles on Wednesday with numerous stops along the way just to muster up enough mental fortitude to keep going.

I decided to bag my one remaining run of the week - an 8-miler and replace it with a long bike ride instead. We were camping in Copper Harbor, so I rode from the Burma Road to Eagle Harbor. 28 miles at around 16 mpg. That's not so shabby for a bike newbie.

I debated all day long whether or not to run tonight. Since I only had two miles on the schedule and my shins had four days of rest, I finally decided to head out and see how things went. I opted for the super soft surface of the Chassell railroad trail, one of my favorite routes from last summer. My shins were a little tender and burned the entire way, but it wasn't too bad. The soft surface helped quite a bit. So did the Ibuprofin I took before I left. Maybe the pre- and post-run stretching, too. I'm also hoping the six ice packs that are wrapped around my legs at the moment help as well. If those things don't work, I'm really hoping the new shoes and insoles that I have coming on Wednesday will take care of everything. I'm trying everything else, might as well throw some money at the problem, too.

I had a two-mile run last night which, considering the short distance, sucked big time. I was having some discomfort in the Achilles area of both legs, but mostly the right. I'm pretty sure this is from my run on Saturday. Since I do the majority of my running on the flat surface of the road, my legs aren't conditioned to handle the uneven surfaces of a logging road for six miles.

I iced and massaged both legs after my run and took a healthy dose of Ibuprofin. Hopefully that plus my day off today will allow my legs to recover for my seven miler tomorrow. If not, I'll just push it to Thursday.