Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Post TNR Shin Update

I was very apprehensive about my run last night. I didn’t know what to expect. Sitting on the railroad tie in the parking lot before the run, before anyone else arrived, I forced myself to stretch out my legs. I’m horrible about stretching. I know that’s part of the issue with my leg

As the group arrived, we started talking about distance. The group agreed to do the 4-mile out and back and let me judge how I was feeling at the turn around. If I felt good, we’d go to the 5+ mile out and back turn around and reevaluate at that point. If I felt really good, we’d do the 6+ mile loop and call it a really great night.

The first half-mile I didn’t know what to expect. The leg moaned at me a little and I was thinking “Geez, I’m going to have to turn around and go back.” But, then it loosened up and started feeling okay, so I continued on the run. At two miles down and time to make the first decision to turn around or go back, I chose to go on. I felt really good at this point. I’d made the decision to do the 6+ mile loop and have a great run. In the next half-mile, I had a lot of inner dialogue. I knew that the hill that started the loop (Arden) was a tough hill. Did I want to take the chance of agitating my leg by trying to push harder than I should?

Before we hit the 5+ mile turnaround, I made the decision to head back and call it a night. It was better to have a great shorter run than a mediocre run that was one mile further. So, the group headed back. We stopped at the golf course to allow one of our runners to use the facilities. Waiting on her to rejoin, I could feel discomfort in my shin. I stretched. Once I started running again, the feeling went away and I finished up strong. I made jokes that I was going to have to Gump it out for September – and run nonstop through the finish line at Augusta if that was the only way to keep it from hurting.

In the last ½ mile of the run, the group discussion was started off with me announcing “If I fail to stretch after this run, you all have permission to slap me.” Come to find out, we all fail miserably at stretching/warming down after these runs. So, we finished up with a group stretch.

Today, the leg feels great. No pain. No tweakiness. I hope this means all is well, but I’ll still be watching closely. Still some emotional “holy crap,” about 25 days from now (including a complete emotional freak-out about the hair in my comb this morning – convincing myself that Augusta 70.3 is causing my hair to fall out.) I know, I’m insane – but aren’t we all?

2 comments:

  1. Nice job on the group stretch! I can be bad about stretching too but I find that every time I skip it my shins are on FIRE!

    Thanks for your helpful comment on the cars! I like the acura too, but worried I'd never use that third bench and a few of my friends have it (I know, it's like i'm in HS!). The audi is awesome but it seemed the most pricey out of the bunch. The FX is probably what i'm leaning towards. Not to sound highschoolish again but it just felt cooler. LOL

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  2. save this for taper madness :-)

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