Day 12 - Did I run?

Well, yes. I've spent about 6 of the last 24 or so hours with an ice pack strapped to my shin, and praying it will get better.

I managed 3 miles at 8m31 pace, and to start with everything felt better. I was deliberately taking it very easy and watching how I landed on my left foot. By 2.5 miles or so, it was starting to hurt quite a bit, but I'm sure it's not as much as it was yesterday.

I'm really worried that this shin problem is going to put a stop to my consecutive running in January, and I'm determined to do everything I can to stop it messing things up. I meant to slap a load of ibuprofen gel on it half and hour before I ran tonight, but I forgot until about half a mile into the run!

A bit of research on the internet-web-thingy wasn't overly positive - several articles all spoke of shin splints with the pain exactly where I have it. It seems to have 3 phases. The first is where it hurts mildly at the start of a run and disappears throughout the run, coming back a little more severe some time after the run and early the next morning. I've had that one. The second phase is where it's noticeable throughout the whole run and can be quite painful. I've got that one. The third is a stress fracture. Apparently, you know quite quickly if you're got one of those as you kind of stop running fairly sharpish, and not through choice!

I suppose my options are (a) stop until the pain goes away and tentatively run again to find out if it will stay away, (b) stop for 6-8 weeks like the good people in the running websites suggest or (c) be a fool and keep running through it until it stops me. It's not often I commit to something, and I know I shouldn't, but I want to keep running until I know I should stop - so I'm going to do a combination of (c) and (a), but (a) when I really am sure I should stop.

Anyway, this is all getting rather depressing, waffling on about the bad points. I should find something positive to finish on. Well, that's actually quite easy: the run tonight was really mellow. No part of it really felt hard, and apart from the leg which I was trying to ignore, it was lovely. It was raining and cold, but it's always great to be running when other people are stuck in their cars driving along, all warm and... no hold on, that's not what I meant! I mean it's nice to get fresh air, the wind in your hair (reminds me - I need a hair cut!), water on your feet.

Tomorrow is another day. The ice pack can works it's magic, the ibuprofen gel can numb the shattering of bones and some stretching can wile away the minutes until the ambulance turns up :-) Nope - the positive thing about today is that I'm convinced it didn't hurt as much as yesterday, and as long as it keeps going in that direction it's a good thing. Let's see what happens tomorrow...