Jill Will Run

Today I was planning on doing 8 miles as my “long” run. I say “long” in quotations because I was originally going to do more than that before the shin splint issue, plus I used to run 8 miles as a mid-week run at times. But I did have a modicum of intelligence and knew I couldn’t/shouldn’t jump right back in with a 30 mile week.

I got in about a mile before realizing it was warmer out than I had initially thought and I didn’t want to wear my jacket. I tied it around my waist but decided to do a 3 mile loop back to my house to dump the jacket.

At my house, I did a quick self-scan to see how I was feeling. There was definite tightness in my legs, but not necessarily PAIN… so I decided to go back out. I did another 4.2 miles, making my whole total for the day 7.2. Not quite the 8 I had anticipated, but I’m okay with this total.

Upon conclusion my calves were super-tight. I’ve stretched and rolled them out, I’m feeling a lot better now, but I’m 99.9% sure I can tie this all back to my shoes. And this is where my major confusion comes in…

Over the past several months I have not been running in Brooks Adrenalines much. I have been wearing New Balance 769s and even more recently I’ve tested the waters with Nike LunarGlides. The local running store that fit me in the Adrenalines said that my shin splint issues are probably due to the fact that I’ve lowered my stability level some.

My gut feeling is that I got shin splints from doing too much. I got a little over excited about every run feeling so fantastic. I ran faster than I probably should have and I ran further than I should have at times.

I’ve had shoe fittings from 3 different sources over the past 2 years, 2 of which put me in neutral shoes. But my favorite running shop put me in stability. The owner recommended that I get back in a higher level of stability again now that I can ease back into running. The first time they put me in NB shoes, they had me use a Superfeet insert to get the shoe to the same stability level as the Brooks. I ran with the insert a couple times, hated it and took it out. But thinking I’d heed their advice now, I put the insert into my 769s to run today.

Ugh… I HATED it, with even more fire and fury than the first time I tried them. It made every footfall feel heavy, like there was no recoil or spring in my foot. The best way I can describe the feeling is if the ground was metal and the shoe was a magnet, attracted to the ground and difficult to pull up again.

So I’m not sure what I should do.
- I’ve never LOVED my Adrenalines… never had that AHA! moment when putting on a pair of them. Plus the pair that I have now has about 350 miles on them anyway, so they’re getting past their prime.
- My NB 769s (that I got free from my NB trip) have about 220 miles on them.
- The Nike LunarGlides have about 30-50 miles on them, so they’re pretty new.
- Runner’s World recent shoe guide specifically mentions that neutral shoes are good for people with a mid-to-forefoot strike, which I have.

Do I get neutral shoes? Do I stick to Adrenalines because the only real issues I had with them is that 4 of my toenails turned black (even though my toes weren’t slamming against the top of the shoe and this is something that is finally healing now that I’ve had a hiatus from them)? Do I use the LunarGlide cause they’re relatively new and have a mild amount of stability? Do I just give up and go barefoot?

I went to my doctor for a follow-up visit Wednesday morning. Honestly, my leg was feeling a lot better… but there was still a little feeling of being “off”… not quite “right”. I told her of the feeling and when she pushed in various spots on my shin, there were a couple spots that were still painful when pressure was applied. But overall, I was feeling a lot better than I was before.

She told me I could go on a run, try it out to see how I feel. She told me if the pain comes back or if I feel anything off, I shouldn’t push through it. She told me I shouldn’t do any speedwork for a while, just to make sure I don’t re-injure it further. And if I do have any pain I should go to an orthopedic specialist that she was going to refer me to for future issues in regard to the shin splints/whatever other pain I seem to feel.

So what do I do when I get home? Of course, I go for a run. And I went on a run the following day too. Both runs were around 4 miles. The results were a mixed bag, but mostly positive.

I felt great mentally, just knowing that I got the chance to run. I missed that feeling; riding a stationary bike was great but it didn’t give me the same feeling of accomplishment or release. I didn’t have pain shooting up into my hip anymore, but there was a little bit of throbbing in my shin. The second run I had a little bit more pain, so I stopped to walk for a while, probably only .1 mile, but that seemed to help so I could keep going.

I’m not running today and will try to go out for a run tomorrow. I’m hoping to do 8 miles. That will serve as my “long” run, even though I had originally planned on doing 13 or 14 at this point in my training. Whatever…

I did find that I haven’t experienced much difference in terms of cardiovascular fitness, so that was comforting. I’m also finding that my leg muscles seem to be a lot looser, after taking a break from running. So that makes me realize the need to be even more cognizant of my stretching, yoga, foam rolling… I’m going to get some new shoes soon and get rid of the old ones that I sometimes fall back to out of habit.

I’m kind of reconsidering my goals for the Las Vegas RnR half on December 6. I don’t really care if I PR or not, I just want to do the race and have fun.

It’s a crappy learning experience, but good at the same time. It’s just a reminder to always listen to my body and treat it well, since I only get this one.

While I’ve been forbidden from running, I got a 7-day trial membership to a 24-Hour Fitness near my house so I could ride the bike. The facilities were really nice; good equipment, a lap pool, spin room, basketball courts, variety of fitness classes; I really liked my short time there.

Costco sells memberships for 24-Hour Fitness clubs at $299.99 for a 2-year membership. That’s basically $12.50 per month. AMAZING deal. I was all set to sign up.

On the day my trial ran out, they asked me if I wanted to sign-up right then. I brought up the subject of the Costco membership and they told me that it wouldn’t work at that club. The reason was the club near me was a SUPER Sport club, as opposed to an ALL Sport club. The Costco price was only good at All Sport clubs.

Alright, I can understand that this club has more amenities than the All Sport level, so I could understand paying a little more. So I asked what the fees were. They told me it would be $37.99 a month, for access to only that club. I could pay $42.99 to have access to all 24-Hour Fitness clubs (although there are probably certain clubs that would be off-limits to that one too). These are month-to-month prices, no contract.

I then asked if there is any way they could do some kind of deal if I pay for a certain amount of time upfront, like the 2-year deal I was looking at. They told me I could pay for 2 or 3 years right then, either option would cost $699.

While the 3-year breakdown works out to be about $19 a month, I don’t want to pay $700 flat out right now to have the privilege of riding a stationary bike a couple times a week. I may as well go buy myself a real bike and then continue riding it beyond that 3 year limit.

I canceled my old gym membership because:
a) It wasn’t as convenient to slip out for a workout quickly when it took 15-20 minutes to drive there.
b) I was running on my own and doing yoga on my own, so it seemed kind of expensive for a chance to use weights (I wasn’t riding a bike then)

Do you guys have gym memberships? If not, what do you do for some cross-training?