Sunday, October 16, 2011

How Much is Too Much?

I am a competitive person, and I like thinking of myself as a runner. Call me vain, but it feels nice to think "I'm a runner," whenever a run gets hard or I'm out there alone chugging away. And because of my competitiveness, I can never find the right middle ground. Races are often horrible (from pushing too hard), or not as fast as it could have been. For 5Ks, I usually try to give it my all. And so far for half marathons, I lose mental edge in the middle when it gets hard. Because I figure, why did I pay $40+ dollars to not have fun, so I slow down.
Definitely my problem for a half. 

Now the reason for my post. Whenever I start adding tempos and interval runs, I get the same nagging shin pain. It's not serious, but annoying and makes me wonder if I should cut back. But with school, I barely get in 20 miles a week, so I don't know where I could even cut back. And I figure that it's reasonable to have some pain and soreness with working out regularly. I guess I'm just not sure where to draw the line.

On a happier/stressful? note, I signed up for my second 5K. I signed up thinking that I would try to PR, but that thought was stressing me out last week, so I decided to shoot for a time around my last 5K's time or slightly faster. I will just give it my all and remember that I didn't do any speed intervals while training for my second half.
I WILL run like hell. And I WILL have fun with it. 
Fun fact: The race starts at a bar. And it will have six pack runners which are group of six runners all connected together somehow. If I had five more runner friends, I would have definitely been up for that.

I am excited. And I will now go contemplate whether the shin thing is too much and I should rest or not. And of course the first pic is from fb I <3 to run. Love that page!

Have a happy Monday tomorrow! And what should I do? Where do you guys draw the line when it comes to running pains?
And because everyone who runs/reads my blog is a sexy beast . . . 
Let's go eat some sexy beasts!

9 comments:

  1. So happy you signed up for your 2nd 5k! 5k's are so much fun but also tough too because you are running so fast. At least the pain is short lived. :)

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  2. Hahahahaha next time someone says "you are what you eat" to me, I know what to say.

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  3. I love that sexy beasts picture! Haha!

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  4. Hahhah love the last picture!

    Also, it's not too much until you are tempted to do this: http://www.nesn.com/2011/10/london-man-forfeits-marathon-medal-after-taking-a-bus-for-five-miles.html

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  5. Good luck at the 5K! If we weren't running our half marathon that weekend we would have totally done it with you!

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  6. I've been getting little shin pains too...but they never hurt during my run, they just are sore afterwards. I ice them with frozen veggies and this helps.

    I read in a book that if your shins are hurting, stick a pen in between your toes, and try to write out the alphabet on a piece of paper. It's supposed to help stretch them out

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  7. @ Maria, I know! I saw that story a few days ago.

    @ Jamie, good luck with your half! You guys will kill it.

    @ thisgirlcanrun, I will definitely try that. Same with me, my shins never hurt during my run. I hope I have enough toe dexterity to hold a pen.

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  8. That 5K sounds fun! Shin pain could be your shoes, have you been professionally fitted? Also, when your shoes get worn out, the lack of cushion can result in shin pain too.

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  9. @ Kara, I have been professionally fitted. And I only have about 100 miles on my shoes, so it's probably trying to do too much too fast or my lack of stretching.

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