In May, 2023, my left leg got really sore. I stopped running to get a diagnosis and treatment. First they thought it was a stress fracture, so I got an x-ray. Negative for a stress fracture. But they suggested a bone scan. So I got one of those. They said, “It’s bad shin splints” and told me to rest. So I did. And eventually things healed and I felt better.
The desire to run was not there for a good couple of months. I went from having no issues motivating myself to literally run every single day, no matter the weather, to not being able to convince myself to go out at all.
But recently that changed. I started running here and there, and got out on a couple of Sundays to run with my crew. That made a big difference! I had trouble running the longer distances and the pace that we usually run on Sundays. But I wanted to get out with the guys on Sunday and I knew that the only way to get back to comfortable, long Sunday runs was to get out during the week.
This week I ran on Wednesday (5km), Thursday (5km) and Friday (6km in the rain). That’s more like a usual week for me when I was running daily. It was especially good to gear up and get out in some not-so-nice weather. The motivation is back and being able to convince myself to run even when the weather is crap is a real mental boost.
Today I ran just shy of 15km with the crew. That’s my longest run in…forever. And it was great. I was still huffing and puffing more than I would like considering the pace we were running, but in a month or two, if I keep getting out for 4-5 runs during the week, that fitness will return and I’ll be back to “normal”. I can’t wait!
