THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

7:51 AP.  80 degrees, overcast, and and drizzly with a south breeze.  It felt cool and refreshing and I really had to keep holding the reigns in because my legs wanted to go faster.

7:59 AP. Supposed to be 10 easy plus 2 hard.  I noticed  a little shin splint in my left leg, it is down on the lower lateral side of the shin, nowhere near where my stress fractures where.  I have since poked, prodded, hopped off 2 foot walls onto concrete, bounced and bounded, and determined that it does not feel or act like a stress fracture.  Impact does not hurt.  Flexing my foot is what reproduces pain, and the pain disappears when I run fast because my footstrike moves forward and I don't flex as much.  Still, it is there and it bothers me.  I have been so careful.  I have run easy, made sure I recovered, never pushed or gotten sore.  Everything has felt great, I really haven't been sore at all, haven't pushed the envelope.  It doesn't seem fair to have this.  Anyways I ran my 10 easy and then mile 11 in 6:24, then kinda had a meltdown freaking out about the shin and shut it down and jogged in.    No need to push mentally or physically.  We shall see how it does with easy jogging and some ice the next few days.  There is a chance it is just an ambulance bite, because I did notice a little scratch in the area.  Sometimes I hit my legs and get bruises jostling in the back of the rig and don't notice until the next day.  If that is so, then it is just a little hematoma under the skin that gets sore with jostling, and will go away quickly.  I'm encouraged that impact is no bother, but discouraged that anything hurts at all.  My plane tickets and entry fees to Saint George are non-refundable.  I want to cry.

After a lot of research and more poking and prodding, I think this may all be from tying my shoe to tight that day.  Shin splint is about 70% gone today. I decided that a few days of crosstraining now may save me heartache later.  Sooo...

am.  one hour recumbent bike

pm: 20 minutes cybex bike.  jogged  a few laps on the indoor track, felt pretty alright.  10 minutes elliptical.  10 minutes rowing machine.  stretching.  deep painful self-massage--felt great afterward though.  One more day of crosstraining, then I am going on a normal run.  Hoping for 100% gone tomorrow.  I am more and more confident that this is a fluke and will disappear quickly.

6:47 AP.  Before you ask what I was thinking running like that on a shin splint, let me explain!  Since the pain reproduces by flexion of the foot at a certain angle, and downhill running minimizes flexion, then theoretically it should be pain free.  Sooo, I tried it out...Voila!  No pain running downhill!  After continuing research I am 99.9% sure of my self-diagnosis.  On that bad day, I tied my shoe too tight, which caused a slight but far-reaching effect on my footstrike and pronation.  This alteration angered my tendon and muscle on the lateral side of my shin.  If I had a stress fracture, the workout I did today would have been excruciatingly impossible. In fact, it was quite comfortable and I had no increases in pain.  I am going to proceed carefully forward with my aggressive shin splint self-rehab program(with more loosely tied shoes!) and am hoping the inflammation will ride itself out in a few weeks.  

Treadmill at the downtown Y over lunch.  .5 mile warm up 8:34 pace.  2.5 miles up 4% incline 7:30 pace.  5 miles down -2% 6:22, 6:18, 6:15, 6:11, .5 at 6:07, .5 at 5:56.   Gentle calf and shin stretching.  Self-ART, wrapping my hands around my ankle and driving my thumbs in hard and painfully into the shin muscle and dragging up while gritting my teeth and grimacing.  Toe points up and down, circles in and out with my feet, a little heel walking, ice, hot shower, supportive tape.  Walked out of the Y with the shin feeling better than when I had walked in.

And in other news, I was contacted by our local running store about a racing team they are putting together, that may involve some sponsorship--information meeting Sunday evening.  I am looking forward to hear what they are proposing.

8:34 AP.  Shin is about 90% back to normal!  Ran on the dirt roads near home.  Didn't feel my shin during the run.  Stretching, toe points, alphabet circles, deep massage(this and heel walking is the only thing that induces pain now), hot shower, a little tape, and off to work.

7:42 AP.  Great run!  Went with the GoRun East group.  Took it pretty easy from the start, started naturally picking it up around 10, then started my final 4 tempo uphill on the first mile 6:51, 6:35, 6:35, 6:37.  No problems from the shin-whatever it was it's going away!  Afterwards stretching, toe points and circles, deep massage on the shin(this is the only thing that hurts) and some fruit.  Felt pretty smooth and controlled during the tempo although I was tired at the end.  Temps were 70 something at the start and it was pretty humid.