Shin splints gone, but still had a bad run :(

First off, this article really spoke to me, as I know I’m carrying around at least 5 pounds of excess fat these days.  I won’t know for sure until I get home from my vacation and can weigh in, but I feel fat.  I’m sure it caused the shin splints that ruined my run yesterday.

I almost didn’t go out for a run today, afraid that the shin splints would come back.  But, when it is 75 degrees outside (I’m on vacation in South Florida), how can you resist.  So, I dragged my lazy ass out of bed at 9am, dilligently executed the preventative shin splint rubs and stretches, and was out on the road by 10am.

I could tell right away that it was much hotter than yesterday.  Yesterday, I was out in the 7am hour, and 3 hours makes a huge difference in the sun becoming a factor.  Otherwise, the weather seemed really nice – 75 degrees and little wind.

After the first mile, I could tell that the shin splints would not be recurring today.  Great news!  At least I know I can ward it away with a little up front prevention.  So, now just needed to focus on getting through the rest of the run.  

At about 1.5 miles, started feeling the sharp pain of a blister on the back of my left foot.  Damn.  The pain was sharp and clearly would not be a small nuisance.  This is also familiar to me.  It is funny – when this last bothered me, it was 6 weeks before the New York City Marathon, when I was running in my 2nd long training run.  Right now, we are approaching 6 weeks before the Austin Marathon, and I’m going to run my 2nd long training run later this week.  Exact same timing.  I have no one to blame but myself though.  My running socks are old, starting to develop holes, and are very thin.  My shoes are also starting to build holes on the fabric on the inside of the back of the shoes.  This is a dangerous combination.  When I get home from vacation, my first order of business will be to get my feet assessed at JackRabbit and get a new pair of shoes and a new set of socks.  The Saucony Grid Hurricane’s I have now have been nothing but trouble.

Anyway, decided to push ahead with the full 5 mile run.  I knew from my last bout of the blisters that the pain would eventually subside.  And, subside it eventually did.  Then I hit my next problem, the heat.  In the summertime in NY, I hate (with a capital H) the heat.  The heat and I do not get along.  I thought I could deal with it for a couple of runs in the middle of winter, but it turned out I could not.  By 4 miles, I had to stop to walk.  My mistake was not bringing a bottle of water along.  In total, I walked 3 times in the last mile.  Unfortunately, while the blister pain subsided while running, to add insult to injury (no pun intended) it actually hurt a lot when walking.

Overall, my time of 48:06 (9:26 per mile) for 5.1 miles is not bad at all considering the blister and walking.

When I got back to the hotel, it was time to tend to my injury.  By coincidence, last night, my 7 year old fell in a parking lot and skinned both her knees, so I had peroxide, cotton and Hello Kitty band aids available.  When I took off my shoe, my worst fear was realized as a saw my very bloody sock.  I was hoping it was just a simple blister that did not open up, which is easier to deal with and faster to heal.  But no, blister was deep, and will likely take 2 weeks to fully heal – see picture below.  My kid got a big kick out of my howling from the peroxide (boy does that sting), and the Hello Kitty band aid I sported the rest of the day.

Tomorrow morning, hitting the road back to NY.  Guess I’ve got a good excuse not to run along the way!