I had every intention of starting W9 strong on Tuesday night but, unfortunately, my shin was still a bit tender so I decided to rest one more day and see how I felt the following night. It turned out to be the right move because my shin didn't bother me at all during the day on Wednesday. Or so I thought. About a third of the way into the warmup walk I began to feel a faint tingle in the shin. I shrugged it off and kept going.
Taking into consideration the way W8D3 went, I wanted to make sure I eased into the run; especially since W9 bumps things up to a full 30 minute run. Starting off slow is always tough when you have long legs and I'm beginning to think that may be a cause for the pain because it's just not natural for me to run at half my normal stride. The shin ached, a bit more than usual but nowhere near the way it did on Sunday. As I went along, the aching was less noticeable and I began to pick up the pace.
I wasn't quite at the pace from W8D1 but I was moving along comfortably and my breathing was solid. The most difficult part of the run was trying not to focus on whether or not I was planting my right leg in a way that wouldn't result in further discomfort. The extra 2 minutes didn't even seem to take a toll on me from an endurance standpoint which was surprising. However, that could have been because my mind was preoccupied with the shin.
In the end, I completed W9D1 without an issue. I covered 2.8 miles during the run and a total of 3.8 miles for the entire workout; both of which are personal records. It's a nice boost to my confidence that I maintained my 33 minute 5k pace despite being less than 100%. There's still work to be done if I want to reach my 30 minute or less goal but I have a good month and a half before the 5k so there's plenty of time to improve.
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