What a fantastic day! What a miserable day!

So, I have been battling shin splints and knee pain in my right leg since January. Since forever, really- it comes and goes. Take two weeks off, good for a day. Pain the next run. Two more weeks off. Good for a day, excruciating the next run. Six weeks of Physical Therapy. Acupuncture. Turmeric capsules three times a day. Rolling, stretching, massaging. Ice, elevation, heat, compression.

Last week, I finally felt good. Really good. Like three runs in a row, 28 mile week good. I took off the neoprene sleeve and patellar band, and hit the treadmill. Six miles on Tuesday, five on Thursday, still good. No pain, no altered gait...





Went out Saturday and crushed my 10K PR. No sleeves, no band, no pain. My old PR was a 9:42 pace. Ate a Salted Caramel Gu 20 minutes before the start. Threw a caffeinated Nuun in my bottles with some Tailwind (best stuff on the planet) so I could skip the water stops. I went out fast, trying to clear the walkers that for some reason line up in the front of the corral every time. When I got some room, I looked down and saw that I was cruising under 8:00, which for me is too fast. I'm slow, remember?

Happy!

Wanted to try to stay around 9:00 to beat my PR, and since my 5K PR is 8:58, I figured I could maintain that without bonking at mile 5. I had made the mistake of going too fast early in my last half and damn near had to crawl in. Totally bonked at mile 10. So, I settled in around 9:00, and my Polar says that first mile ended up being 9:13. But, I felt really good, so I allowed my pace to increase, and my splits got better and better with my last mile being 8:28. I set a new PR of 8:29! I shaved 1:13 off my average pace. So my 10K PR pace is actually now 30 seconds faster than my 5K.  Guess I need to fix that now.

 I felt so good... I actually wanted to go out Saturday night and rip off another few miles. So encouraging to finally be rid of the leg pain that had plagued me all year. Already rehearsing what I was going to tell my Acupuncturist today. How great I felt! I stayed home. Iced. Soaked in the Jacuzzi. Enjoyed the satisfaction of the day.

And then..  Got up Sunday morning, a little sore, understandably. Not acute pain, just "I ran six miles faster than I ever have yesterday" sore. Thought I would go out for four or five on the trails and jog it out. Within a half mile, I could feel it. That icepick in the middle of my shin, the scream down the inside of my calf, between the shin and the calf, and before long, due to my altered gait, the nagging knee. So disheartening.  I jog/limped back to the car and went home and iced for the rest of the day.

Not happy...

What do I have to do to fix this? I look at these people running like gazelles down my street and feel so jealous. How great it must be to just run and not have to worry about sleeves, and insoles, and gait, and making sure I am not running on sloped asphalt, or concrete...

So, back to rest. Back to acupuncture.. Back to being slow.