Five years ago, shortly after we were married, I received a medical discharge from my contract with the Army's ROTC program. I had run for about a year on shin splints, not knowing what they were or how to treat them (having never had so much as a sprained ankle until then). By the time I was discharged, I had almost no hair on my legs below the knees, and I regularly lost all feeling in both of my large toes.I stopped running for about 2 years...which did not help me in fighting the traditional marital weight gain.
And I have been trying to get to a healthy weight to start running for three years, off and on. Sometimes it hasn't been practical, sometimes I have done really well. About two years ago, I managed to lose about 17 lbs, and was getting close to being able to run almost three miles. Then stuff happened, and life changed, and that stopped.
Now we're headed back towards doing stuff outside, and I am determined to get back in shape. I was avoiding the inevitable for a week, hoping to reach a personal goal before getting to buy new shoes; I have been running on the same shoes that gave me shin splints five years ago. I was hoping to reach my goal early this week, and buy new shoes right after...but in the meantime, I ran (mostly) three miles with some friends on Sunday night.
Monday morning...the old familiar pain was there, shooting up and down my shins while I walked around my office.
Sigh. Sometimes being a physical being isn't all its cracked up to be.
I have bought new shoes (a gross luxury...but a reality if I ever want to run again) at the insistance of my wife, who is entirely too good to me.
I am also icing my legs nightly.
And I am hoping to make a much slower, but no less determined return to running this weekend. I have a goal, which I might share a little later, if it looks like it is a real possibility.
But the last few days have been...ouchie...
2 comments:
How are the new shoes treating you? Any more shin splints?
It was great seeing you guys at New Year's. That was way more Leigh than I usually experience in my daily life.
Oh yeah, it was also great beating you guys in cards. Hah!
It was great seeing you too! We let you win...it was the polite thing to do, after how long you drove to see us...
The shoes are helping. So far, I've managed to keep a regular run about twice a week, and I am weight training the rest of the week. Hopefully I can do that until I lose another 10 lbs, then I can run more. I've lost 17 lbs as of today, so that's pretty good. I am lifting at the same time, so eventually I won't be losing weight...but I am hoping at that point, my legs and body will be strong enough to manage the strain of running for long periods of time.
I hate being out-of-shape.
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