Slow progress

Well, its been awhile. Ok, 1 week, but still, I've got some catching up to do...Let's see. Last I checked in was a week ago today, when I experienced only minimal pain during my run. Well I noticed on Tuesday that I had some lingering pain, so we took Wednesday off (which worked out ok, since we were fasting anyway) and started up again on Friday. Friday was even more pain-less than Monday. There may have been a few twinges, but overall, it was the least amount of pain I can remember having during a run. We managed 1.93 miles, at an unknown pace. (I forgot to stop my watch...Oops!) So, slowly, but surely I am upping the length of my runs!

The weather here has been amazing over the past week. There's been clear skies and it's been pretty warm (60° in February is warm!). It has been so nice, in fact, that trees have begun blossoming...It's only February guys! J and I took advantage of the weather on Saturday and went exploring further into Forest Park. There were a lot of people out enjoying the weather on the trails that day. It was kind of fun to people watch while climbing through the trees.

I completed my second relatively pain-free run today. I wouldn't say my calves/shins felt "painful", they just felt "tight". We've kept to the grass along the waterfront and today completed 2.20 miles at about a 12:00 min/mi pace. I've been purposely keeping it pretty slow to ease my lower legs into running again, hopefully a little better than I did before.

I've really been babying the lower legs after each run (and after the hike on Saturday). I start by going through my Yoga stretches. Since I've been having so much trouble with my shins, I have added some calf stretches to the end of this routine. I stretch 2x on each leg with a towel roll under my arch for at least 30 seconds. I stretch a little bit with the knee extended, but then focus on stretching with my knee bent as well. I am starting to believe that this muscle (namely the soleus muscle) is what has been giving me the most trouble. Since I've begun focusing on stretching this way, I've noticed a lot of improvement in pain. I've read out in the internet world that they believe the soleus is one of the muscles most culpable for shin splints, and thus far it appears to be the biggest troublemaker in my case.

The culprit. Soleus. Look at him, just sitting there behind the Gastroc all nonchalantly. "Who me?"


After I am all stretched out, I get the foam roller out and roll out my calves. I start by rolling on the back of each calve (one at a time) than turn my leg inward to roll out the innermost calf/shin, where I've had the most tightness and pain over the course of my injury.

After the foam roller, I rub out my shins (over the bone in front as well as the innermost portion) to try and keep my muscles from forming knots and causing pain. After all the torture, I reward my shins with ice (20 minutes for each leg). After the ice, I'm done. So far (you know...the last 4 days) it's been working pretty well for me. We'll see how my legs feel going into Wednesday's run. (I'm hoping I continue to be pain-free, and am able to complete the planned run!)

**After reading through all that, I notice that it may be easier to understand what I am doing if I post pictures vs. write out confusing directions. I'll try to have J take pics of my hot legs when I go through my routine next, so I can post them to lessen the confusing words...***

In other news, we have officially signed up for our second 5K, at the Shamrock Run! Originally, I had wanted to run the 8K, but since we haven't been able to up our mileage thus far, we're sticking with the 5K. Hopefully my legs continue to feel ok, and we can go for a PR! *Fingers crossed!*