It’s been a month since The Woodlands Marathon. The decision to walk at mile 15 is paying off and I am running again. My knee pain is non-existent and my shins are healing. Though my volume is reduced from my typical non-training running volume, I can now go for a 5-6 mile jog and come home without pain. Last week I ran 27 miles, my longest run was 7 miles on Sunday.
Monday morning my shins woke up ever-so-slightly tender so I decided to give them a day off and instead of running, I swam for an hour (1600 yards). Yesterday, the tenderness was gone so I taped my shins in KT tape, as a preventive measure, and ran 6 easy miles. No pain. No big deal. I think I can safely say that the shin splints are on their way out.
My new goal? Never let it happen again.
While letting my legs heal from The Woodlands I’ve spent a lot of time doing running drills and strength work to build my stability muscles. It’s evident from the problems I’ve had the last couple months that I’ve neglected all the supportive parts of my body. At the gym lately I’ve been doing a lot of box jumps, jump rope, clamshells, planks, wall squats, single leg balance, bridges, skips and stretching my hip extensors.
I can feel the difference that the strength work is making. I feel much more supported when I run and much less like Gumby, a change I welcome. Now I realize how poorly supported my body was toward the end of marathon training. With the intense speed work and high mileage (peak week was 82 miles, the month of December was 241 miles) no wonder my shin gave up on me.
My only goal right now is to heal properly and build my stability muscles and aerobic capacity. Ideally, by mid-summer I will be ready to begin strength training again in the weight room and anaerobic work on the treadmill. I don’t have any fall races planned yet but I know I’ll end up choosing one or two soon.
The question of the day is, do I want to run another full marathon before Boston in 2017?
It’s a bit scary to think that the next time I run a full would be in Boston but as far as reality goes I don’t have many choices.
For now I’m going to keep doing box jumps at the gym and standing on one leg while I make dinner.