With my whole health nightmare the past two weeks, I haven't been keeping up on this and I'm terribly sorry!
Due to the shin problems, I haven't been running much. I was running and going to the gym steadily up until Feb 29th. With packing and all, I skipping my last day before travelling. I ran 3 miles in San Fran up and down hills on the 2nd with 1 mile on the treadmill beforehand, then ran only a mile on the 3rd before my right shin was in so much pain I was limping. I walked a ton over the next few days, limping along, but that's it. I did some ab work, and weightlifting at the hotel gym at one point. When I got back I continued to rest through the 10th. On the morning of the 10th, I ran 1 mile on a flat treadmill, then did a spinning class for 45 minutes. My leg hurt a lot and I went to the walk-in clinic.
I went to the muscle conditioning (60min) on Tuesday. Then I went for a 1.5 mile run on Wednesday. It wasn't too bad but achy. Thursday I did bootcamp in the am (45 min) with a 15min hill bike warm-up, and muscle conditoining at night (60min), but still no running. On Friday I only went to the pilates (60min). My leg was really starting to feel good in spite of my lack of cardio.
On Sunday, I ran my first 5K!!
It was so exciting and nerve-wracking. I don't have my official times yet, but according to my watch I ended up running it in 28:20. Kind of shitty time, I know. I had been running it most recently in 25-26min. Still not good, but the race meant that I gained a full minute on every mile due to the shin and lack of running the past two weeks. Ugh. The beginning of the race was lame too because everyone starts out in a crowd and slow. It takes the full first mile to finally be able to effectively navigate around people since the slower ones are tiring out. I doubled up on the prescription pain relievers about an hour before the race in order to ensure that it didn't bother me too much. It only start to kick in with a little achy soreness after the first mile. It was growing worse, but the motion of running is relatively short, so while I was running it wasn't bad. I felt kind of nauseous coming down the last and final strip, but I think it was nerves more than anything. It's insanely exhilerating!
After the race was over and I was cooling down (it was about 35F out there yesterday during the race), my shin started to hurt more. But my parents were there and had disapproved of my running in the first place, so I grinned and bore it. No limping for me! Besides as my sweat began to cool, I was more preoccupied with not freezing to death than my leg. I'm so happy that I went ahead and ran the race. It meant so, so, so freakin' much to me. I can't wait until I can run another one. I feel like they're going to become addictive - kind of like the way people get about tattoos.
Today my leg is pretty sore. But I didn't take anything for my leg last night, so I think it just swelled up a bit overnight. I've taken something now. Because everything went relatively well yesterday, I'm going to put myself back into a light cardio program - and my cardio, I mean running. Maybe alternate running and spinning or something. Or maybe keep my runs at a max of 2 miles at a time. That way I'm getting back out there, but easing into it. My leg still hurts, of course, but I really can't stand sitting around on my ass.
My appetite has finally decreased at least, so I'm not still trying to eat the same I did two weeks ago. That's a relief just based on the fact that I've gained 5 lbs and can't keep up at this rate. Anyway, I didn't run this morning, but I think I'll bike after work today since that keeps my quads in working order at least.
That's it for my current update!
