Week in Review: Nov 1st - Nov 7th (10 Weeks to HURT)

Not much to say about this week, no running involved.  My shin still hurts, but it's getting better.  I'm fairly certain it's tendonitis at the bottom of my Anterior Tibialis muscle.  I'm icing it a few times a day, wearing compression socks 24/7, wearing a brace or band to keep it stabilized and stretching my calf plenty.  If it doesn't get better soon, this whole thing is shot.

Mon - off
Tues - Upper body workout, core workout
Wed - off
Thurs - leg workout (1hr of chair step-ups)
Fri - 30min ebike
Sat - off
Sun - 1hr mtn bike, upper body workout, core workout

Total: big fat zero

I was going to bike more this week, but I thought I'd give my shin some rest.  It actually doesn't hurt when I bike, but there are a few times I twist weird or put my foot down to avoid a wipeout on the trails, those didn't feel good.  Step-ups feel ok, but again I wanted to get one week of resting it so I only did them once.

I was supposed to go for a night trail run on Wed, obviously didn't happen.  I was also supposed to do 80k trail run on Sunday with some people, that's not happening anytime soon.  This is going to set me way back.  I'm going to start doing more step-ups to simulate some steep hill climbing.  There's a nasty steep 97 step rocky stairway just off a trail I run, I plan to head there and do some climbing this week.  Stepping up or down doesn't seem to bother my shin, but walking downhill does hurt as I bend my foot downward.

On Sunday, I used the time I would usually run to go check out some trials.  I need to find some more rough and technical trails around here.  Rattlesnake is great, but the gates close at dusk and there's no parking on any streets in the area, so I'll never be able to go there during the week.  So I drove up to Terra Cotta Conservation Area and Silver Creek Conservation Area.  These are also along the escarpment, so hopefully there'll be some rocky and technical trails I can try out.  I went for a short walk along one of the trails to have a look, but it wasn't what I was looking for.  The 2 conservation areas are adjacent to each other, and I can park on the street between them day or night, so I'll head up there for some runs once I'm feeling better.  About a 40 minute drive, not too bad.

The plan is now to rest another week, ZERO running whether I want to or not (I'm fine with NOT right now).  After next week I'll decide whether to try some light runs or keep resting it.  Any rest beyond that and I'm screwed.  This week I'll do more biking and stair climbs.  Still icing and stretching.....loads of fun.