1 WEEK TO THE BEGINNING OF THE RACING SEASON!

And I am very excited!! I'm hoping all my shin splints problems will be gone by then. As I said in my last post, I went to see a sports therapist (ST) on Monday and an ART chiropractor Friday and I have to say I was shocked to hear what the ST had to say!! He's a Varsity ST and he was telling me that I should expect at some point to run with pain and that shin splints are not a big deal... I'm like running is my HOBBY and I want to do it pain free, I'm not competing at the university level, I am no professional athlete. This is all about fun and enjoying myself for me! =) So, from that meeting I got some stretches and exercices to do and that was pretty much all.... and I'm not planning to ever see this person again!

On the other hand, I really liked the chiropractor =) He took me seriously and gave me tons of information on where this could be coming from. He was also very happy I came to see him at the first signs of pain. And since I missed my long run last week-end, I didn't have pain at the time I saw him but I could feel it when he put pressure there. He thinks the shin splints will be gone with 3 appt. He says if it does persist he could videorecord me running and see if it's coming from somewhere else (bad posture or hand movement that makes me pronating...). He says it's no surprise the pain is coming from the leg where I had no knee problem as my other leg is probably compensating for the weaker knee. He also looked at my hip flexer and said they are a source of shin splints but they seemed alright. So overall, I'm very satisfied with the whole massage and his hands on approach to the problem.... we'll see how tomorrow's long run will go =) I just learned we're expecting a snow storm here...arghh wish I had ran my 12 miler instead!! Tomorrow will not be fun... oh well if it's snowing and icing in Burlington next week I'll be ready!!

Here's this week Recap:
Tuesday: 5 miles at 10:35 min/mile
Thursday: 3 miles at 11:06 min/mile with a new running buddy (Andy)
Saturday: 3 miles at 9:51 min/mile (Pace)

Have a good long run all! =)

A WEEK WITH ALMOST NO RUNNING....

We got hit pretty hard with a snow storm last Tuesday and I decided to stay home instead of running. (Call me lazy but weather was CRAZY!) Then with all the snow on the ground and being in Windsor (i.e. VERY slow plowing) I went to the gym on Wednesday and run 40 mins at 9:30 min/mile but by the end I had some shin splints and my calf was thight too. I stretched a lot that night and decided to do the 3 mile recovery run on the bike, so there again I went to the gym (I hate that place!)! Somehow I hurt my back (another reason to hate the gym) so after a lenghty phone call discussion with my brother, I decided to take the week-end off running... like he said: "Better take a break now and run the half in 2 weeks". Which is a very sage decision and I'm happy I went with it =) Although the week-end seemed sooooooooooo long without running.

I went to see the sport therapist today and that was pretty much a lost of time and money... but I ran 3 miles on the treadmill afterwards and the leg was alright =) On Friday, I'm trying something new called Active Release Technique, I've heard it made miracles for other runners so I'm hoping this will help me too!!

Have a good running week everyone! Weather is finally nice so enjoy!