Worse Than I Thought...

Well, it appears I'm injured, dammit.

Five days after my last run, and I still have soreness in my left shin. While the pain is minimal when walking, it's there. And while I could run through it, it seems to make more sense to slam the breaks on now - on January 28th - than later in the spring when there are all sorts of races I want to run. Random thoughts:

1) Could be either a shin splint or a stress fracture. The localized nature causes me to think the latter. Either way, it appears the prescribed treatment is RICE. So, unless I've got a good reason to go to the Doc, I'll probably try to common-sense my way out of this: run when it doesn't hurt. Don't run until it doesn't. Go on the bike until then.

2) My plan had been to go from the FIRST plan to the Fitzgerald Plan, thinking that increased running would improve my running economy, my personal strength in the VO2, Lactic Threshold, Running Economy triangle that dictates performance. Alas, when I did this, I walked away from the best benefit of FIRST, which is recovery profile. And, as Lisa Sabin writes, recovery is key as we get older.

3) I'll let February be the guide of what my spring will hold, but there are other options. Last year, for instance, I did a sprint triathlon in April. For that one, I actually did a little pool training, but truth is, I'm going to suck at the swim no matter what, and it's only 300 meters. I'm considering biking for February, biking and running for March and April, and doing the tri with no swim training in April. Forgetting the swim, it would give me a nice gauge of running and biking fitness relative to '07.

4) Assuming a healthy spring comeback, I'm considering a lot of trail racing. I like it and it's challenging and it's healthier than road racing. A summer of that would also set me up for a nice assault on a fall marathon.

5) It could be worse and this blog won't even begin to whine. Check out this dude: He lost two toes winning a race and picked up a two year subscription to Trail Runner magazine. A good magazine, true, but two toes?

Comments

  1. jpnairn4:33 PM

    Tough break with the shin injury, Marcus. I hope it isn't serious, and a little rest gets you over it.
    There are actually two popular RICE therapies for running injuries. The other is:
    Run through it.
    Ignore it.
    Compensate for it.
    Endure it.
    The guy who lost those two toes to frostbite had it pretty tough, but I don't give the race credit for his injury. It was practically self-inflicted by his negligence. After leaving the race, he went and took a long nap with his shoes still on. His feet were totally numb and frozen, so he didn't even bother to look at them until he was awakened by extreme pain as blood started to move in them again.

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  2. Ron6:11 PM

    Sorry about the injury. Play it safe though. It sound like you should do a lot of swimming since you need some improvement in that area. It is almost the same as running cardio wise so between that and biking you would lose very little if any endurance. Then you could burn that 300 meters and have more energy for the rest of the tri. Just my thought though.

    Losing 2 toes is certainly not a successful race no matter what you win. Money/magazines will always be there, toes on the other hand, will not.

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