Fire! Fire! Shins on fire!

I almost didn’t make it, was totally going to quit, my shins were screaming at me to stop, burning like they were a pig on a spit, and I’d only gone 1.5 km – this was not going to be a good run. It didn’t help that it was preceded by a major traffic jam on the highway that took me an hour and 15 minutes to get from the office to my brother’s house; a drive that should have only taken 20 minutes.

Why are we paving the highway at rush hour?

As mentioned yesterday I had planned on running 10 km, but my legs had other ideas. They wanted to lie on the couch, or soak in the tub, or even sit at the blogging desk – they did not want to run. And if the shins on fire weren’t bad enough, my form was majorly off. I was slapping my feet, not even the music coming from my ear buds could drown out that clomping, and I was going all bird like craning my head forward and with my shoulders creeped up to my ears. At 3.3 km in, with sweat dripping out of my jacket and with an average pace that my grandma could do, I was ready to throw the towel in. I stopped my Garmin, took off my mitts (why am I still wearing mitts in April???) and jacket, and stretched out my legs. And then I started thinking, I’m still going to have to run another 3.3 km to get back to my brother’s house, what’s another 4.5 km really? Have I mentioned, I ain’t no quitter.

I headed towards Clayburn Village, a historic village that came into being with its brick plant in the early 1900s and still fashions itself after those turn-of-the-century times with old brick buildings, open gardens and white picket fences.

I’m glad I kept going. Pretty much as soon as I started to run again, the shin flames had seemingly been doused and I was good to go. So good, I was booking it without really noticing, which helped bring my average pace back down to a respectable digit – and the way back had like 5 hills! And not piddly hills, oh no, running back up from Clayburn Village is like climbing the Mt. Ventoux (okay, maybe not that steep but it’s freaking steep) three back-to-back hills with nary a flatline for recovery! Good thing I like hills 😀

TONIGHT’S RUN:

• 6:15 p.m. BG before: 11.1
• Temp. basal: -50 per cent (1.5 hours)
• Distance: 10 km
• Average pace: 6:22 min/km
• Average heart rate: 162 bpm
• Time: 1:03:52
• 7:30 p.m. BG after: 5.6
• Temp. basal: +50 per cent (1.5 hour)

Note: The shin pain had nothing to do with my recently healed stress fracture, it wasn’t that kind of a pain. I am wondering, however, if it had anything to do with the fact I was wearing my compression socks underneath my compression tights, maybe they just got overly tight … or maybe they were still tired from Sunday’s run. Who knows, all I know is that my legs and feet are in desperate need of a massage!

Do you run with compression socks?