Runner Down

Shin splits.  Mother said these words on Saturday and I thought, "eah, people get those all the time.  No problem.  I can shake it off."  Originally, (meaning as of Saturday), I thought I'd still run today.  As of this morning, I thought that I'd do some cross training, such as the Jillian Michaels DVD.  This evening, I thought "Not!"  My mother-diagnosed shin splits do juuuuuust fine.  ....Until I'm on feet for say... 10 minutes or something crazy like that. 

So, I decided that yoga would be good for me And my legs today.  I thought it would stretch my legs and help my shin splints and still be a decent activity to do.  Well, it wasn't nearly as feel-good as I thought.  At All.  See that whole 10-minute on my feet thing above. 

And after yoga, making dinner complete with an appetizer and dessert, my legs were back to feeling like they were blown up from the inside.   

My training this week may take some devastating blows.  I consulted WebMD about shin splints, as every girl seeking partial advice for a self-diagnosis would do.  WebMD wasn't nearly as passive about the treatment of shin splints as I thought.  Ah hem.... "they" (whoever that is) says it's not uncommon to take 3-6 months to heal from shin splints and that if you keep running on shin splints, you will do permanent damage.  "They" recommend lots of rest and ice. 

Sigh.  Ice, I can do.  But I refuse to quit training.  I have yet to decide how the rest of this training week is going to go.  I will definitely scale the mileage down a lot this week.  But hopefully, I don't have to not run at all this week.  I will play it by ear.  I will keep you posted!

It Ain't Good

Here's the latest report.  ...And it ain't good. 

Saturday morning I yanked myself out of bed early to do this @$^%$*! 12-mile run.  I was determined to do it.  During mile 6, my right knee started hurting a bit.  I shook it off and carried on.  During mile 8, the side of my right knee/hip/thigh started hurting.  I told the pain to go away and insisted on ignoring it.  The side of calves hurt just above my ankles, with sharp yet dull pain shooting through my legs.  The last mile and a half, I honestly didn't know if I could finish.  I hurt so bad, was so over the fact that by the time I finished, I would have ran for 2 hours, and I *hurt.*  I wanted to cry, but luckily, *you*can't*cry*while*running.*  I felt like even if I stopped running, there was no way I could even walk the last mile and half.  So, I did the only thing I knew to do.... I kept running.

I finished in 2 hours exactly.  And wanted to crawl.  To say that I was hurting, is an understatement.  I knew I wouldn't have time to soak my legs in cold water when I got home, which was incredibly disappointing.  If I've ever needed an ice water soak, it was then.  BUT, it was a Saturday on a fall day in east Tennessee.  You.See. 

*Tailgating* & *UT*Football* required a rush order on my next move. 

So, as any well-trained southern girl would do, I adapted.  I iced on the go!

This shall start the list of my injuries from my 12-mile run.  Remember me saying the sides of calves above my ankles were hurting?  Uh huh.  Swollen.  The right worse than the left, but both swollen.  And sore to the lightest touch.  Still swollen and sore today.

My right knee.  Nearly too stiff to bend.  And continues in the same condition today.  Extremely painful.

And my left knee.  General aches and pains on the outside of my knee.  Quite a bit better today. 

In addition to these injuries, I have severely chaffed inner-thighs, sore quads, and a sore bum even.  What's worse than running 12-miles in great pain and resulting injuries such as above?  ....Doing said activity in an underwire bra.  Uuuuh*huh.  Someone didn't double-check their overnight bag.  Super.


The joys of tailgating, fall, football and family and friends dulled some of the pain for the remainder of the day.  And the day continued like this:

With a disappointing ending, but an exciting game for an SEC rivalry.

And then I got that.  A pretty gnarly blister from the orange and white wedges I wore to the game and walked a few miles in to, from and around the stadium.

The day got really great when I crawled into bed at 1 a.m. with allll my aches and pains, still in Full force and effect and slept like I hadn't slept in days.  Then I woke up and enjoyed my most favorite treat. 

A Dunkin' Donuts old fashioned donut. 

And then I enjoyed a most blessed Sunday.

I will need Lots of *ice* this week to fix these aches and pains.  My mother has diagnosed the swollen spots on my legs as shin splints.  I've started taking ibuprofen and glucosamine.  Here's to the road to recovery.

It's Personal

"Don't take it personally."  P*Lease.  When someone says that, it's clearly personal.  My running is personal.  And I do take it personally.  Uughh.  I just keep trying.  I'm not any good at it, and I truly don't look forward to it.  But I keep doing it because I said I would.  And if I weren't running I'd be ballooning into a lazy, unfocused couch potato. 

I piddled around Forever tonight putting off my run.  I have had a super long week at work, was soo tired and hungry too.  Between my office door and the 100 yards to the trailhead, I managed to piddle for twenty minutes before I finally started my run with a roll of the eyes.  I ran 5 miles in 48 minutes.  My thighs felt like cinder blocks.  I think I need a lot more yoga in my life to stretch out my heavy legs and relax. 

Oooooh, I need to relax.  I absolutely cannot wait for this weekend.  (Except that whole 12-mile run thing.  Let's not talk about that.)  It's been a rough week.  Can you tell?

It Was An Octopus

It's funny how when I take one day off from running, my body acts like it's been weeeeeeks since I last ran and that it's nearly impossible to get going again.  ONE DAY!  I started my run this evening and I felt like, as ESPN commentators once spoke of Casey Clausen trying to run the football, "an octopus falling out of a tree."  Truly, I'm not sure I could have possibly felt more awkward. 

It took me a mile and a half to ditch the octopus tentacles.  Only to pick up half a ton of bricks to distribute between my feet.  The bricks tagged along for an additional 2 miles.   Finally, my body remembered how to run like a normal personal with a mile and a half to go.  I finished my 5 mile octopus run in 48 minutes. 

I saw some pretty horses today and a Lot of smiling runners (while Super refreshing an appreciated, I can't help but want to stop those Smiling crazies runners and ask them What In the WoRld they are smiling about!)  They know something I don't.  I'm GOING to figure it out!

....Maybe.

Can't Catch A Break

I can't catch a break.  Really, this is what I feel like lately.  Lately, meaning Today.  I was born to be a farm girl and I should clearly not be using technology.  It is Never my friend.  On top of that, I can't get one thing done at work for getting another thrown at me.  I'm trying to get the piles off my desk just so that I can find the things I need to work on.  Crazy.

So today I intended to rest my knee/thigh/hip thingamajig.  And I InTended to rest in general.  Yeah, well, you know what they say about the best intentions.  ...It's something clever I'm sure.  It was a looooong day.  I didn't sit down until nearly 11pm.  No yoga, no lazy couch sitting, nope.  Just busy busy. 

About mid-day, my knee ached when I tried to get up from my pathetic excuse for an office chair.  It made me nervous.  Knee problems are hard to get over once they start peeps!  And this is the opposite knee that I normally have problems out of. 

We'll see how tomorrow goes.  It's not going to go so swell if I don't get in bed!  Looooong day!

Injury! Injury!

The little girl who cried wolf.  Not really!  My first injury related problem of my training!  Help! 

So, I ran 4 miles today on my lunch break.  I got late information that my evening was going to be occupied so I took the liberty to run during my lunch break.  Even though I'm usually very opposed to such because I get all sweaty and icky and my hair.... pshhh, let's just not even go there.  But I did today.  It took me 38 minutes and 40 seconds.  (Still under 10-minute miles!) 

Near mile 2, the outside of my right leg from the knee up started hurting, all the way up to my hip.  I actually had to stop at 2.5 miles and try to stretch it.  How do you stretch the outside of your thigh???  I haven't figured it out yet.  It was like my bone ached.  I finished the run, went back to my desk, and continued to ache every time I got up.  It Hurts!  *Bad!*  And I don't know what to do about it.  I guess I have to rest it tomorrow and pray it's all better.  Though if any of you have recommendations on how to fix an achey and sore outside thigh/knee/hip, whatever all the business is, I'm allll ears!

I'm going to go look up some crazy yoga poses now.

I Almost Died Today

Kinda.Really.Truly.  Almost died.  Yeah, yeah, the run was terrible and I hurt really bad and kinda wanted to die, but I Really Almost Died Today.  I Really Kinda Truly was Almost FLATTENED by a Tour Bus/RV.  We're talking arms FlaiLing, me half-Leaping half-being Blown down into an embankment over large pools of water.  Yeah, it was spectacular.  AND of Course, NO, there was NOT someone in the other lane preventing him from moving over to Not Nearly FLATTEN the girl jogging in the bRight Red shirt and Whiiiite hat.  Don't Even pretend like you didn't see me mister.  I've had some close, unnerving calls before folks, but This was Something Else.  Near Death, I tell you.

So, obviously I ran today.  I felt awwwful.  I didn't want to do it.  I've been fighting this nagging cold/allergy/something nasty all week and I just felt bad.  I laid in my hammock, wrapped in a fleece blanket, book in hand, and Finally convinced myself that I HAD to do my long run for the week.  It was a very depressing moment.  Thank goodness Superwoman made me pancakes this morning. 

I had originally planned on running 12 miles today.  The cold/allergy/something nasty started to change my mind about that earlier in the week.  And even laying in my hammock this afternoon, I considered just doing 8 miles.  But I convinced myself that it was OK to just maintain this week, but that I was not going to move backwards.  So I did 10 miles.  A Legit, honest, hard, somewhat hilly, 10 miles in one hour and 43 minutes.  At mile 7, I told myself that if I could just make it to mile 8, then I would let myself finish the last 2 miles however I could; walk, crawl, skip...  The last half of mile 7 was a slow incline, for.half.a.mile.  So when I reached the top of the incline and 8 miles, I convinced myself I could make it and that life wasn't so bad.

It hurt.  I hurt.  I soaked in ice-cold water for ten minutes, showered, and then at some goat cheese and "chicken of the woods" pizza that Superwoman and I shared from the *amazing* Harvest Table http://www.meadowviewfarmersguild.com/HarvestTable.html.