run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Give me a break

Shin splints are the devil, I tell you. I'm on the bench- sidelined again. All I want is break from all the breaks!! Is that too much to ask? I just wanna RUN. So yep, the shin splints have slowly crept back up and have been increasing with each mile I run. I've been stretching well and doing exercises to strengthen the muscles around my shins and it ain't working. It sucks. Finally, I admitted to myself that I was going to have to go with my last resort and take a few days off. It was pretty obvious that this was gonna have to happen when I met Amy for a planned 12 miler last weekend. I didn't run anywhere near 12 and only managed to do 4 total and nearly half of that was spent walking. I was going to take 2 or 3 days, but I fear it's gonna take longer than that because just everyday walking is painful.

It's week 7 of my marathon training and I'm behind. I just keep thinking...what if I fall so far behind that I fail to train sufficiently? What if I can't run the marathon? What if I never heal? What if? What if? What if?

I'm gonna try to amp up the cross training and strength training, but I am so scared of losing my running fitness. Sorry to whine and vent so much, but ARGH!!!!!! That's all I have to say about that.

Let's try to end this post on a positive note, shall we? I'm proud to announce that I'm still moving right along on my hundred pushups challenge and I am really kicking ass, y'all! Go me! I finished the first two weeks fairly easily and worked my way up to 5 sets totaling almost 50 in one workout. Week 3 is a significant step in difficulty. Repeating the second week is recommended if you are unable to do 16 consecutive pushups on the 2nd test. Well, last night, I did that test and got to 18 before reaching exhaustion. Two weeks ago, I could only do 8! To reiterate my previous point, Go me! So tonight I'll start week 3, which is 15, 12, 12, 10 and at least 15 on the last set.

Well, I reckon that's all for today. Just remember to think of poor, poor, pitiful me while you're out there pounding the pavement (I suggest that you don't pound too hard, though, or you'll end up like me).

6 comments:

Joe said...

worst case scenario, you can't run but you still come to dc and we just go out and get totally hammered. :)

but seriously, it's still 2 1/2 months away. you have enough time that a little rest won't knock you out of the box. take care of yourself.

Anonymous said...

Two words: Foam roller

GypsiAdventure said...

That must be frustrating...try to look on the bright side...you've still got time to get better and I'm sure you've built a good base so you shouldn't fall too far during the recoup phase.

RunnerMom said...

Did you see the Marathon Moms article in July's Runner's World? One of the ladies had to do biking for like 6 weeks to recover from an injury and still had a pretty good marathon finish.

I'm into the hundred push up thing, too. I spent two weeks on week 3. Week 4 is no joke, either! Good luck and get healthy!

Spike said...

I think you have plenty of time to take some days off and still adequately train. Trust your body, it won't lose its running fitness as quickly as you fear.

Rhoni said...

You'll be fine...sometimes your body just needs you to slow down...you'll probably come back stronger for it!