…that does not come easily to me.

Well, i persevered through my 11 mile run this past weekend.  What started out as “ow. ow. oh dear, I don’t know if my quad can handle this.” gradually turned into “what a lovely day.  It’s been 8 miles and the soreness is finally going away.”  

I felt good when I was done (aside from the exhaustion and soreness of running 17 miles within the past 24 hours).  I got home and my husband had a cold bath ready—he’s so sweet—so I dumped in some ice and comforted my legs.  

We decided to walk around downtown that afternoon, and despite feeling like my legs didn’t quite know how to function, I felt fine.  It’s weird when your quads are sore, because it limits the restraint they normally have on how your knee bends and every once in a while, my leg just kinda ‘gave out’.  I had to really focus on keeping my lower leg working right and not hyperextending.   

Sunday, I pretty much didn’t do any activity all day.  My goal was to rest my legs as much as possible.  But by the time my Monday 3 mile run came, I began to feel like my biggest marathon training fears may have caught up with me.  

Maybe.  

As weird as it may sound, I’m not sure what’s going on with my lower leg.  I can’t tell if my tibialis posterior and peroneal muscles* are now sore from overcompensating for my quads, or if shinsplints are here to say hello.  I only ended up running 2 miles on the treadmill because of this.  

*i wish i didn’t know what these were called, but i’ve had too much shinsplint experience to be ignorant.

I didn’t want to do any further damage if it was in fact my shins.  So, I’ve been doing special stretches and exercises to combat the arrival of shinsplints.  Yesterday, instead of doing my scheduled 6 mile run, I spent 60 minutes on the elliptical.  And today I will be back there again for 30 minutes instead of doing my 3 mile run.  Tomorrow is a cross training day and my normal strength class, so I have yet to decided if I’ll attend that.  Maybe I’ll just do the arm exercises and forego the leg stuff…but then people will think I’m a slacker.  

It’s very difficult for me to refrain from trying to stick with my training schedule, but I REALLY REALLY do NOT want my marathon to be a disaster.  So I’m trying my best to force myself to take every preliminary step to avoid that.  I think I’ll be spending more time on the elliptical until I am 110% sure that my shins are okay.  It’s not the same as running, but I suppose it’s necessary.  

*sigh*  

Patience, Katie.  Patience.  And don’t be so obnoxiously stubborn.