i've written about it here many times before: my number one goal for 2010 and beyond is to remain injury free. i've developed a plan that has been working great, and that plan involves hardly anything beyond warming up properly, icing after particularly hard workouts and stretching. no sweat. as long as i stick with that i should be much better off than i was last season, and so far i have been. well, as simple of a plan as it is, i strayed from it on thursday and am now sitting out for a few days with only a week to go before a huge race.
thursday was max effort running intervals with increasing duration and decreasing recovery. i felt great out there and felt like i'd finally found my stride and that my speed work was finally starting to pay off. i was holding the split times that i've been trying to hold all season and i was able to do so on tired legs. i saw my coach afterwards and told him that i'm feeling fit and strong and ready to race. afterwards i did my usual stretching and all seemed well. it wasn't until the next afternoon, shortly after i'd started out on a light recovery run, that i realized how badly i'd screwed up the day before. my shin splints had come out of hibernation and i could feel them burning after only a few minutes, and i had to pull the plug on the workout after only 25 minutes. the pain was too much and it was time to rest.
the problem? i didn't warm up properly. in fact, i hardly did a warm up at all. for some reason i'd convinced myself that my ride from work to the gym would be sufficient, so i started doing my hard sets right out the gate. huge mistake. what i should have done was stuck to the plan, which normally would have been 10 to 15 minutes of light running followed by some dynamic warm ups. and the thought of icing afterwards didn't even cross my mind.
so here i am sitting on the sidelines, missing today's race simulation workout. this was going to be my last big workout before tapering for next week's race, but instead i'm hobbling around, resting and stretching. if all goes well i'll be back at it on monday or tuesday, but if things don't improve i may not be able to run for several days, which means i may not be able to race. my body responds and reacts with such acute sensitivity that it always amazes me. it's little setbacks like this that keep me on my toes and i need to stick with the routines that work in order to stay healthy. another lesson learned the hard way.
