I had every intention of doing a Friday Freedom Run yesterday, despite Tuesday's disaster on the treadmill. I got out of work a little early, the day was beautiful, my spirits were high, and when I got home, I browsed March 2011's issue of Runner's World while I drank some pre-run water.
There, on page 56, I was forced to confront what I've probably known all along.
I am dealing with shinsplints.
" 'Shinsplits' refers to medial tibial stress syndrome, an achy pain that reuslts when small tears occur in the muscles around your tibia (shin bone)."
Now I realized this is not an earth shattering diagnosis. (That it made it into Christine Aschwanden's article "The Big 7 Body Break Downs" and constitutes 15% of running injuries annually is a clue.) But when the veil is lifted from your denying eyes, it certainly feels that way.
"Can you run through it? When the first twinges of pain strike, back off your running to a comfortable level for a few days to a week, then slowly up your milage using the 10 percent rule (no more than 10 percent increase per week). Bike, pool run, and swim."
Not sure what this means for The Plan. But in the meantime, I fully intend on backing off. I started this morning by going to back to back Power Cut and Cycling classes with my favorite crazy-haired lady, Claudia.
I figure if I can't get the mileage in that I want to, I can at least strengthen all of the muscles (Power Cut) and keep up my aerobic activity (Cycling) so that the runs I can go on will be all the more successful.
(Damn you, shinsplits.)
No comments:
Post a Comment