Managing Pain

As I've mentioned, I have had a recurring bout with shin splints the last year+... It's pretty terrible that my endurance is so much greater than what my legs are capable of dealing with.  However, I've learned to manage the pain pretty well.  A couple ice packs a day go a long way.

Saturday I got in 6+ miles scouting for next weekends hash, and sunday I got in just a hair under 6 in Brighton/Island Lake for this weeks hash.  I also looked down at my watch at one point and nearly soiled myself when I realized I was running a sub 6 minute pace...  Damn.  Granted, it didn't last too long, but most of the running was done at a 7-7:30 pace.  Still solid as far as I'm concerned.

Thinking I need to start heart rate training.  And get back on the bike.  And in the pool...

Weeknight running

Last night I ran with the hash.  We did on the order of 5 miles in northville.  Looking at the distance over time on my GPS would have you believe that I ran a 10 minute mile for the whole thing.  That's a lie.  It's generally 6-7min mile pace, with lots of brief stops, and several long stops.  And a slow tromp through the woods. 

Took off tuesday to rest.  While not exactly a restful day, it was a welcome relief.

Unfortunately, as my heel pain is beginning to recede, my shin pain is starting to return.  I feel like I'll never get past it.  WTF mate?
I'm considering, and by considering I mean intending, to lower my mileage and intensity for a while, hoping to shut down my shin pain.  I also need to start icing again...  Damn it.

Counting

I suppose as an endurance athlete we have a certain predisposition toward numbers.  We find ourselves fascinated by the athletes we look up to and their weekly mileage counts, as well as our own and our friends.  We know the exact mileage of our favorite routes, and have a fixation with PRs for those routes.  Today was a beautiful day and as such, a perfect day for a run.  This all leads back to counting.  My GPS died less than a mile into the run today.  As such, I don't have a clue how fast I ran, and only know the distance based on mapmyrun.com (about 3 miles).

I'm still trying to recover from Iceman, and my frequently anaerobic performance at yesterday's hash wasn't doing my legs any favors so I intended to go out slow and just loosen up.  Alas, my body doesn't find slow to be an agreeable pace.  I opened it up a little more than I should have and probably finished the whole run in about 23 minutes...

This brings me up to ~9 miles on foot for the week so far.

If only I had the same compulsion to watch my diet as I do to run and bike...

The long road ahead

So it turns out that I really enjoy running and cycling.  Swimming ended up being an unnatural extension of the two, by allowing me to participate in triathlons.  Now, I'm a triathlete.  Have been for a few years. 

Last year, I managed to do 4 olympic distance events, as well as a Half Iron distance event.  Less than a month after the Half Iron, I ran my 2nd marathon, 2 weeks later, I raced Iceman.  I also raced several half marathons over the course of the year.  Granted, I'm not particularly good at any of these.  Iceman was a wreck, with a 3:08 finish.  I've never bonked harder in my life.  I took my marathon easy and finished in 4:17 which allowed me the opportunity to have ~3 beers while running it.  I finished my half iron in 5:45, and I'm about a 2:35 oly triathlete.  I'm racing half marathons about 1:40 consistently, with a PR of 1:38.

So here's my dilemma...  I'm a graduate student with minimal time to train and boatloads of ambition.  What do I do?  Well, the plan for now is 2 April marathons, the 50 miler at Gnawbone, pace a buddy at Leadville, and Full Iron sept 11th.

Yikes.  Ambition looks painful.