Ease Off

When I woke up last morning, I sensed a sharp pain

on my right medial tibia while I took my steps toward

the bathroom. Ooooop, immediately I knew that spelt

trouble and it seemed that old friend shin splint wanted

to pay me a visit again (I knew that would happen if

I insisted on pushing it after picking up a mild

shin splint issue resulted from the weekend 32ker, in fact,

I already planned for a rest day or an really easy day

on the mill the day before, but that evening weather

turned out to be tooooo pretty to miss an excellent outdoor

run, and .... See, some people are just slow learner).


The pain was severe enough to practically force me into

hobble. While I quickly popped an Ibuprofen, I was pondering

on what would I do to the Q2 tempo run that was scheduled

in the evening.

Needless to say, the effort to "gut through"

the tempo run last evening was not very successful, and in

some way, I was glad that I packed the run after warming up

and while trying to settle into the tempo pace.

Soon after I started running on the tempo pace, I realized that

I would not survive that pace for the whole 10k, at least

not without picking up another injury that would sideline me

for the next six weeks or so. I would be much better off

to called it an easy day and bagged the run (Ah Ha, somehow,

the 'old dog' still learned a thing or two from past

painful lessons).


Thank god that the shin responded very well to the combination

of ice, NSAID, and rest, this morning the pain subsided

significantly though not painless.


While I am happy that I don't have to hobble my way

to the bathroom today, I find myself pondering again on the possibility

of doing back to back hard day training, which means running

the missed tempo run today and the Interval workout tomorrow,

so that I still can have a rest day before I do the weekend

long run again.



Don't you see that obvious obsessive-compulsive

disorder of a silly runner?



On reflection, I had done enough hard works the last two

weeks to justify some easy days, or god forbids, even some

rest days. I had done 2 long runs longer than 30ker, set

a PR in a 10K race, and done a super furious interval

workout that induced DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)

for days.



While I still have no idea whether I will still pursue the

tempo run today, I know that I will feel much better and not as

guilty as before if I skip that tempo or even tomorrow's interval workout,

as I know that I have enough legitimate excuses of not blindly

following the program.


Sometimes, I think I really have to listen more

to what my body is trying to tell me (pain) before it decides

to force me into being obedient(injury).

In the endeavor of pursuing excellence and maximizing our

potential, we all walk a very very thin fine line between

overreaching and getting injured, and sometimes always,

it is better to be safe than sorry!

Crank on.