Know When to Hold 'em, Know When to Fold 'em

So Kenny Rogers sang a great song that really is a life lesson.

Sometimes you have to know when is the right time to stop and walk away.

Well I had been doing so well on my base training run plan. I was getting out each day for a decent run. Nothing too fast, and often just a short distance (5 km or so). After 2 weeks I had banked almost 95 km of easy running.

Now let's turn back time a bit (and not in that Cher kind of way). Before I began this Odyssey of mine, I had been running less frequently but greater distances. Two weeks before starting I ran 21.3 km followed 2 days later by a 16 km run. This is the point where I noticed perhaps my shoes were done. I had developed during the second long run a bit of pain in my shin. So off to Aerobics 1st I went for some new New Balances (see a couple of posts back).  I got these shoes but then went on a business trip where running wasn't easily doable. So I figured a little rest before base training wouldn't be a bad thing.

Once back from the trip I began running and as I said, 14 days later I managed a decent 95 ish km. But on the last run I did (13 km), that shin began to hurt a bit again. Now this isn't the type of pain that makes you scream out loud, nor does it persist. But you can tell it is there. And you just know that it has the chance to get worse. And frankly stress fractures or long term shin splints are not where I want to be. Running needs to be fun as much as training.

So I took my cue and called a halt to my daily running experiment. And now 4 days later I still haven't run. Instead I have made my bike commutes more challenging, and upped my swim distance the other night. And I have been getting back into yoga and my stretch/ strengthen routine that I received from my Chiropractor. Now my shins and ankles are still slightly sore, but more in a tired muscles kind of way and not an injury kind of way.

I think that I may try a run maybe this weekend and see where things are. And if it feels good, I will go back to the drawing board and rethink my running plan. Perhaps if I hadn't run on worn out shoes a month ago, things might be better. But I can't fix that past problem, and can only fix what I do going forward.  I'll let you know what I come up with.