crying at the 2nd km.

Yup, that was me, full out crying when I hit the 2nd km of my run tonight. And no, it wasn't the same type of crying I expect to be doing when I finish my half-marathon. It was "my shins are on fire and i hate running" crying. Now I have calmed down, and I only did 3 km's tonight with the last km being my best. It was probably the best because I hate crying so much I just wanted to get home and get in a bath!! Hahaha. I am having a really hard time with my shin splints. I have seen my chiropractor and once again been told that my crooked back is doing an excellent job of making the healing and strengthening of shins so much harder to do! There are many different angles I am taking at conquering these little knives digging into my shins. The most important I feel is the stretching and strengthening of the shin. I just got a wonderful Ipod app (sidenote- there are a GAZILLION wonderful running apps - search them!) called Yoga For Runners...it is a 15 minute yoga session led by Nike and designed for runners to do after they finish a run. I have started doing it after each run as well as on my days off simply because of how nice the stretches feel. There are lots of typical stretches like the ones below that I have been working on doing, though I also have to really focusing on my back, because similar to my sarcastic doctor "stretching my shins won't straighten my spine" :)

When I spoke to my chiropractor we also discussed the possibility of compression socks. Those are socks that stay tight on your calf and help warm (reducing muscle vibration and promoting blood flow) the shin, preventing shin splints. I wanted to try them to see if they worked and also cause they come in bright pink and I am a total sucker for running accessories!

However, we have decided against trying them because I am on a different prescription drug that increases my chances of blood clots, and my chiro thought these could also increase my risks. And all in all I thought I would rather run through a little pain than die on the 2nd km :) He suggested that at this point, I stick with stretching and strengthening. He also noted that since the shin splints do get better as I continue to run (usually gone completely by the 4th or 5th km) they most likely will not become a worse problem. He said a real concern comes in when the pain gets worse the further or longer I run, so I keep an eye on it for now!

Right, so back to the crying part! So there I am on the 2nd km in so much pain I think I will need to ride Pismo back home....and my feet are so heavy I am sure that people can hear me coming blocks away. Heavy feet is a condition of shin splints, you can always tell someone struggling through a shin splint cause they are thud, thud, thudding along but than I just keep going...because that is what I do, I finish.

And once I was finished and at home soaking in a wonderful tub drawn by my wonderful hubby, I realized it wasn't so bad. I realized it's OK if I have to walk a little, or walk the whole time, and I realized it wasn't just the run, I had a stressful day at work, my supper wasn't sitting the way my tummy wanted it too, oh and the fact that it was -2 and pouring rain also aided in the easy tears :) I guess it's the "mental" part of running I will have to work on next!!