Running Chick

Happy Easter and all that.

I’ve been getting some good rides in the past few days while I’m nursing my shin splints.  I rode to Josh’s place via M-203 on Saturday afternoon.

I swung through McLain Park on my way. It's opening at the end of the month.

Despite the sun being out, it was cold and windy. My toes were frozen by the time I got to Josh's. We had James over for Easter dinner at my house. I made spare ribs, garlic & parmesan mashed potatoes and broccoli. Yummy.

 

After dinner, we learned that James has a talent for Wii Bowling. Josh came awfully close to beating him, but he crushed me every time.

No matter, watching James try to hula hoop made up for everything. He twirled everything but his hips and looked like he was having a seizure. Holy funny.

So, my schedule this week:

Saturday – 25 miles, 11 mph average

Monday – 20 miles, 13 mph average

Tuesday – no riding, turbo yoga (oh my aching arms - damn those dolphin pushups!)

Wednesday – 21 miles, 12.5 mph average

Thursday – planning for 10-ish miles plus turbo yoga

Friday – supposed to be really nice, maybe I’ll go for a little ride, but maybe not

Saturday – planning for 30-ish miles, but we’ll see

Sunday – turbo yoga

I’ll start running again on Monday and see if my shins appreciate their 10 days of rest.  They’d better, the bastards.

The good news: my calf is all better. The bad news: my shin splints (MTSS) are back I did three runs this week, but it's become pretty obvious that if I don't take a bit of time off to rest them, there will be no Eagle River HM for me. **sigh, grr** I was really hoping that this time I'd be able to make it through training without anything major, but it's just not to be. **depression** At least it looks like it's going to be good bike riding all next week so between that, the elliptical machine at the gym and turbo yoga, I'll be able to keep my fitness level up. That's good. But man, this is FRUSTRATING!

I successfully completed three pain-free, conservative (read slow) miles on the dreadmill today. Holla!

I was a little afraid of reinjuring my calf, so I took it really easy and wore the calf sleeve I picked up last summer. It's supposed to do things such as keep the muscle warm and provide compression and support which are all good for a calf injury. At least that's what the doctor told me when he advised me to get one. Seeing as how my calf stayed attached throughout my run, I can only assume it did it's job.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I'll attempt four miles. I don't know if I'll do it on the dreadmill or not, I'll let the weather determine that. Speaking of weather, Ma Winter can't decide whether she wants to give up or not. We had snow yesterday and today and it's also on the forecast for tomorrow. The temps have been in the mid-to-high 30's so what snow we've been getting hasn't been sticking around, but it leaves us in a constant of wet and sloppy roads. That's no fun for running. If I do run outside tomorrow, I'll have to pick a hill-less route that's calf-friendly. That'll take me at least half the day messing around on www.mapmyrun.com.

Oh, new gear! The Superfeet insoles that I got a couple of weeks ago weren’t so super on my feet so back to www.runningwarehouse.com they went. The UPS guy dropped these babies off today:

I’ve used them before with no issues, and bonus - they don’t need trimming.  I’ll be taking them for their first spin tomorrow.

Shameless plug:  www.runningwarehouse.com 

I’m completely in love with this store.  Their prices are great, they have **free 2-day shipping** and they’ll even return, for a full refund, trimmed, worn insoles.  I’ve spent so much money there in the last two weeks that I’ve put myself on time-out from their web site.  Hopefully there are just as many other runners out there as addicted to it as I am and their business won’t go under because of my hiatus.

Let’s hope, anyway.