5k Craziness

Almost 2 months ago I signed up for my first 5k.  Since then, my training has been sporadic, to say the least.  I have weeks where I am getting out there and running on the days I am supposed to and going to the gym on the other days.  Then I have weeks like this past one...

This is how I envisioned my week of Spring Break would look ~ a 1-2 mile walk with Sasha every morning, then either the gym or running on my own later in the day and MAYBE throw in a late afternoon walk with Gary once he got home from work.

This is how my week of Spring Break ACTUALLY looked like ~                           ...

No, I did not type in invisible ink above.  My problem was, for the most part, I did nothing to help my training.

On Good Friday I took a great mile long jog, where for the first time, I jogged more than I walked!  Progress is what I call that!

So Saturday morning, I was still on that cloud, when I made a mistake.  My legs were hurting a bit, and I had told myself that while I am training to never run 2 days in a row {actually, my training schedule told me this}, but I KNEW I would be okay.  I laced up my shoes and headed out the door.  A little more than halfway through, I felt sharp pains in my shins.  So sharp that I had to stop immediately and stretch.  I tried jogging a bit more after that and it was NOT happening.  I actually sat down in the middle of the sidewalk to stretch and contemplated calling Gary to come pick me up.  Instead I got up and walked home veeeeery slowly.

As soon as I got home, I reached out to my FB and Twitter friends on how to handle shin splints...I received amazing advice {thanks to all of you who responded}!  The main thing I got was to get fitted for proper running shoes {I will blog about that experience later sometime this week}.  I also received a great idea to massage down your shin using the heel of the opposite foot.  It hurts, yet feels so good, at the same time.

No joke, my shins still hurt.  Not like the day I injured them, but more of a dull ache.  Is this what getting older feels like??

It also did not help that the weather was horrible this whole week.  Rain does not begin to describe the weather we had in the Central Valley.  I am not afraid of rain, but it hailed here at least 2 days, we had thunder & lighting quite a few times and even the "regular" rain felt like I was being shot at with a BB gun.

Trust me, I get that I still could have gone to the gym and had a good low-impact workout....I just didn't and I own that truth.  It is something that I am working on.  The way my personality works is that when something does not go at least 80% of the way I envisioned, I have a tendency to say "screw it!"

Please tell me I am not the only person out there like this!

As of today, I have 6 weeks left to train for my 5k.  The weather looks promising for the week {low to mid 70's} which gives me NO excuse not to train...even if it means just getting outside to walk or ride my bike.  If you follow me on Twitter or "like" Organically Mo on Facebook, feel free to ask me about my training....I like to be kept accountable!