Status Update: More leg troubles

I will have to stop writing upbeat posts, like I did last time. Maybe I’m just being superstitious, but it seems like shortly afterward I run into trouble.

So it was this past week. After my long Wednesday evening run (I went about 6 miles through rain and brief hail, which felt better than it probably sounds), I experienced some nasty shin splints that only got worse as the weekend came along. I’ve had shin splints before, and know how to take care of them: rest and ice are the two big things. So I skipped my planned Thursday run, hoping to be in better shape for Sunday’s long run.

But the shin splints have persisted, and I ended up putting off the long run, or any run at all. I’ve gotten on an exercise bike a few times, and I’m hopefully going to go swimming at least once this week. My plan, at the moment, is to do a fairly short run on Wednesday evening, then rest Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and shoot for a longer run on Sunday, stopping to walk fairly regularly so that I can stay sort of checked in as to how my shins are feeling.

All of this would be no big deal if I were just trying to jog more often, or “just” trying to get in shape. But I’ve found that having the marathon looming (11 weeks from now, as of this writing) makes the whole thing seem much more ominous. I’m aware, maybe too aware, of the danger zone that I’m entering: shin splints require time and care to heal, but I have a particular schedule in mind for the marathon, and at some point I will have to move up the ladder and do some pretty long runs. The trick, and the place where the danger comes in, is to run longer distances without ramping my mileage up so suddenly that I risk getting injured again.

I had actually sort of written the marathon off for a day or so, thinking I could safely train for and run the half-marathon and then shoot for a marathon some time during the summer or fall: the Philadelphia Marathon has already been on my mind. (It’s sort of the perfect set-up for me because my family lives in Philadelphia and the race is on November 22, meaning I could go home, do the race, and then completely gorge myself at Thanksgiving with zero guilt as far as pigging out: I’ll need to replenish all the calories I lost.)

But talking to Rich during our weight session* last night, I realized there are a few things I can do to make training less risky and still give myself a good shot at being ready for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May. I had been going off the Runner’s World marathon guide for beginners, trying to follow it to a T: in this case, that meant going for runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I realized I’d had success, just a month or so ago now, staggering my runs so that I did not go out on consecutive days. I also did well with some other “rules” that I imposed on myself: namely, keeping to flat surfaces. I’ve noted that I don’t really like driving to go run, or running on monotonous tracks. But it looks like that’s what’s in store for me. I am hoping that by following the Runner’s World regimen a little more loosely—I think the main thing will be trying, eventually, to do the number of total weekly miles that they indicate—I can give myself a shot at tackling this marathon come that first weekend in May. Another good idea that Rich had was to intersperse walking and running, which should spare my ankles, calves, and shins while letting me “do” these progressively longer runs of 12, 13, 14 miles. I want to reach a point of being able to run these longer distances without stopping—I’d really worry about doing 26.2 miles if I couldn’t get up past around 18-20 miles before the race date—but the best and safest way to accomplish that may be to swallow my pride a little and walk some of these runs.

*I’d like to note that I’ve smashed my personal bench-press record, of 170 pounds. The new record—the ink is not even dry in my personal record book—is 185. I am deeply impressed at myself. This is a full 100 pounds more weight than what I started at, back in October. Even more impressive, 185 is what I have been thinking of as “Mendel Territory.” If you could see Mendel’s beast-like arms and hear the awesome groaning he emits as he throws up these Herculean stacks of weights, you would surely understand why I am so full of myself this morning.

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Tags: 16 Minute Body Sculpting, Adam Reger, bench press, body sculpting, diet, fitness, food, Foot, injury, marathon, marathon training, Philadelphia Marathon, Philadelphia sports, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Marathon, Rich Walters, Runner's World, running, Schenley Park, shoes, Thanksgiving, training, weight training, weights, winter