Do I HAVE to?

I met with a physical therapist on Thursday to see about these horrible shin splints. First, he confirmed that I do indeed have actual shin splints. He said that at least half of the time people assume they have shin splints when really they have simply fatigue of the muscles running along the sides of their shins. I am not one of THAT half. The pain I experience is right along the center ridge of my shin bone. I’ve EARNED ACTUAL shin splints!!

The solution? Well, he gave me some very good information and things to do to both treat and prevent. First, he helped me increase the effectiveness of my calf stretches – tight calf muscles are related to shin splints. Then he told me to increase my cadence, which is basically how many steps I take when I run. Here I’d thought a longer stride would help when really I need to take more steps. Being tall, it’s easy to tend toward too long of a stride. I’m also only supposed to run 3 days a week and I should try to stay to softer surfaces – avoid the asphalt greenbelt and sidewalks. So I’ll run on my own two days a week, hit the elliptical or cycle two or three days a week, then do my long team runs on Saturdays. All this sounds very well and good. No problem.

BUT he also said I need to ice my legs after my long runs. And I don’t mean little Ziploc baggies of ice sitting on my shins. He suggested actually sticking my legs in the RIVER – that would be ideal! If that’s not possible, he said to sit in a tub of ICE water covering my legs for 20 minutes. YIKES!

Today I did my 6 miles with Julie on her bike and Terry running with me (actually I'm pretty sure we did more than 6 miles - again, we had trouble measuring).

Near the end of the run I had to decide what would be worse – to continue running or to quit but have to go home to the tub of ice. I figured the ice was inevitable either way. On the way home, Terry got me thinking and I decided to fill up my kitchen trash can with 4 bags of ice and water and just stick my legs in that! I just couldn’t bear the thought of a numb bum, so this was a GREAT alternative. My daughter brought me a stool, so I spent most of the twenty minutes sitting in front of the fireplace with my legs in bitterly cold ice water watching PBS. My sweet boy, Carson, rubbed my back the whole time, but OH the PAIN!! At least for the first 10 minutes. After that it was a dull ache as the numbness had taken hold. Ugh.



Right now, I’m thawed, showered and dressed in a warm sweater and wooly socks. I’m leaving this evening for a weekend with some girlfriends at Tamarack Resort. We are going to enjoy some relaxing, eating and hot tubbing and, most importantly, the four hour hike and ziplining tour! I’ll blog and post pictures of THAT for sure! Here’s the link if you want to see what I’m getting myself into: http://www.tamarackidaho.com/summer_adventure/zipline.php

I don’t know who all reads this, but thanks so much to my cheerleaders and financial supporters. I couldn’t do this without you! And I wouldn’t soak my legs in ice water for just ANYBODY! : )