16 Days till I run Savannah Georgia with a goal to BQ.
I finished my last long run before Savannah on Saturday. A beautiful, yet painful 23 miles. Wrapping last weeks mileage up at 55.3 miles. I was solo for this run, again. And really didn't mind this time. I took a route I have never taken before that took me out into some wide open country spaces. It was early in the morning and was by far one of the most beautiful runs I have been on. Not sure why I have never taken that route. I tend to stay within the neighborhoods surrounding me, but the country roads are just as easily accessible.
The painful part is what has been disturbing me for the last week.
If you remember, about 4 weeks ago I ran a Warrior Dash. In that race I took a spill and busted my shin open falling off a car in the "car graveyard". Even after the gash healed up, the pain and swelling has never gone away. I figured it was probably just a really deep bruise and have continued to ice it after every run. It is always sore until about mile 2 into a run, I figured it was something I could just run through and it really hasn't slowed me down.......until Saturday.
At about mile 8 it started to hurt. Not a cramping muscle kind of hurt, but a sharp pain with every strain kind of hurt. Now I know you are probably thinking that this would have been a good time to stop running....but I didn't. I thought that too. Any reasonable person would cut the long run short and go get it checked out.
Clearly I AM NOT A REASONABLE person. I had my mind made up that I was not stopping. I was going to finish my last long run no matter how painful it was and just suck it up. My pace dropped from averaging 8:30 per mile to averaging around 9:30-9:45....
I finished and almost as soon as I stopped my muscles in my shin seized up and made it impossible to bear any weight at all on my left leg. I spent the rest of the day with my leg elevated, compression socks on, and a bag of ice.
By Monday I was able to walk but with pain. So I went to the Dr.
I realized that explaining to a person who doesn't run...and maybe even to some runners, why I didn't just stop...makes me sound crazy/neurotic/nutso....
The Dr. took some x-rays and I have a bone chip, which they really don't do anything for. But he thinks that some of the muscle was also torn from the bone. Which, is what a shin splint is....and because I haven't rested it at all it has just gotten increasingly worse. Doc told me to rest for a full week, so I agreed to rest for 48hours. I will go back tomorrow and he will see about getting an MRI just to rule out a stress fracture.
I am so frustrated. I haven't run in three days. I
feel like I am so close to a BQ and I may have sabotaged myself because of my neurosis! I have pictured in my mind how tomorrow's Dr appointment will go....the Dr. will tell me that everything is fine and to keep running and that resting 3 days was plenty. Though the pain in my shin is telling me a different story. I'm hoping that they do an MRI so we can rule out a stress fracture and I can continue to run and not worry about a bigger injury.
Rock 'n Roll Savannah is 16 days away......I am praying for a fast recovery and fast legs.....
