On October 7th, I ran the Memphis Runner’s Track Club (MRTC) 1st 10 miler of the Road Series. It was at Shelby Forest. I had been slightly dreading the race because I heard how tough it was. There were the uphill switch backs which I think is what everyone refers to as the beast. I now see why. People were mistakenly calling it uphill switchbacks. What they meant to call it was up mountain switchbacks. That wasn’t the worst of it. Going down the multiple very steep hills is what hurt the most. I had to walk a lot more than I anticipated. The good news is that I get to run it all over again on Sunday!
After the race, my body and I had a conversation and decided to take 2 days to rest. I had planned to run on Wednesday but then work/life got in the way. Work was busy because I had some HQ visitors and that required me to spend some extra time at work. The visitors made plans to come to my store late afternoon so that put Wednesday run on the back burner. Thursday, I worked overnight. Friday, I took my wife and kid to Indianapolis to see my brother and his new daughter. We stayed there through Monday and I had decided I wanted to spend as much time with my brother and his family that I did not bring any shoes that I could run in. 2 days of rest turned into a little over a week.
Wednesday, I finally laced up my Asics and hit the road. My training plan called for 3 miles. Everything I read has said to not make up missed miles. If you take an unplanned week off, pick up where the plan is, do not try and make up the mileage otherwise you will just end up injured.
I drove over to Shelby Farms and did a quick loop around the paved Chickasaw Trails. If there was a hill then I ran up and down it twice so I could have some practice for the 2nd 10 miler. I ended up doing about 3.71. Around mile 2, the phantom pain started in my right shin.
Every time I took a step a pain would shoot from the left side around the front and end at on the right side of my shin. I would slow down and the pain would decrease but was still there. I started walking and the pain was there every 3 steps or so. I was beginning to panic. I decided that I would play through the pain. I started running again. The pain continued. I try picking up the pace and the pain was sharper. I was coming out of the trail and about to head up a large hill by the visitor’s center. I looked down in defeat. I was either going to have to walk a mile back to my car or call my wife and ask her to come get me. Calling her would be the ultimate defeat and I might as well hang up my laces. My laces! They had come untied. As I watched my feet run those final steps in defeat, I watched my laces on my right foot. The lace would hit my left side, slap the front of my shin, and loop around and hit my right side. The “pain” was coming from the plastic tips on the laces.
I stopped and tied my laces. Took a couple of test steps and the pain was gone. I celebrated by doing extra repeats on the hill. I finished out my run. I did day one of my body weight exercises circuit. Went home and did a half hour of kettle bell exercises.
Day 1 of Bodyweight Circuit: PU = Pushup, SU = Situp/Crunch, SQ = Squat, D = Dip
2 PU, 3 SU, 3 SQ, 3 D, Rest 1 min
3 PU, 4 SU, 4 SQ, 4 D, Rest 1 min
2 PU, 3 SU, 3 SQ, 3 D, Rest 1 min
3 PU, 3 SU, 3 SQ, 3 D, Rest 1 min
3 PU, 5 SU, 5 SQ, 4 D
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