Happy May the Fourth! I am a non-discriminatory nerd. I basically love all nerdy things and Star Wars, of course, is one of them. I’ve always said if I get another dog he’ll be named Lando. I love me some Lando (Billy Dee! Billy Dee!). Lloyd and Lando. How cute would that be?
Anyway, I wound up having a pretty fantastic weekend of almost nothing. I have had several back-to-back weekends of go-go-go so a weekend of nothing was exactly what I was looking forward to. Friday night was spent cooking our usual pre-run dinner and watching TV. We typically have mahi, veggies, rice, and we split a sweet potato. But on Friday we had Trader Joe’s curry chicken in place of the mahi. After some TV we hit the hay.
I had a tempo run planned for Saturday and I was nervous about my shins since they were on fire Thursday night. I wore compression on my run and my legs felt fantastic. I had a five minute warm up with a 40 minute tempo and a five minute cool down. I was able to stay around 8:05’s for the tempo and the cool temps clearly helped.
I lounged for a few hours after my run and then took Lloyd to the vet for his three year rabies shot and since he was such a good boy (as per usual), we headed to the dog park after. He had the time of his life and proclaimed every tree, and shrub, and post, and bush there his.
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| “This is my park.” -Lloyd |
We left the dog park and grabbed some lunch and it was home again to relax even more. Glorious. Then there was a little bit of reading, more TV, and finally dinner. It wasn’t an eventful Saturday but it was pretty perfect.
I washed my new compression socks so I could wear them again on my long run Sunday. Again, the temps were fantastic (64 degrees!) and I had a good run. I hit almost all of my paces and only struggled a bit toward the end. I didn’t have any leg pain until the soreness that came on after I finished. Par for the course.
My thoughts on compression have changed recently and even though I don’t see any real evidence to indicate that they are working while I run, I will continue to wear them because placebo or not, my shins genuinely feel better. I also had a massage and have been rolling them on the lacrosse ball so…..Again, I’m just going to do what works.
Before heading to the best Sunday brunch ever with the S.O. and our pro triathlete friend Maria, I had a phone call with Coach Jon. I told him I was bit nervous about my mileage thus far, but I did understand that he was building the mileage carefully due to my set back with the cold and heel pain back in Winter. We discussed the next month and a half and I feel that with a 20 miler next weekend and a few more long runs, I should be good to go. He again reiterated how I shouldn’t quit before I start. I agree with him so I’m going to keep hitting these runs and see how I feel on race morning.
I hope you all had great weekends. There were a few big races so congrats if you ran them! I’d love to do Flying Pig one of these years. I heart bacon.
And A Happy May The 4th To You…. Cheers
I used to live near Cincinnati. I've only run the short races during Flying Pig weekend but it is a hilly hilly race! Also, when I first started using compression it was for shin splints and the lady at the running shop explained it like this: Imagine the muscles around the shins like a back of potatoes. If you just have them in a loose bag (i.e. no compression) they move in all different directions (muscles pulling in different directions cause the pain). If you were to shrink wrap them together they wouldn't move at all and they'd be easier to carry. I have no idea why that makes sense to me but it does. Compression holds everything still.