So, I started a new job a year ago. My new job came with many perks. One of them being a kickass gym. I figured I may as well start going to this kickass gym. Which I did. I have been going pretty much everyday I am at work. With very few exceptions. It was painful at first. Oh...so...painful.
I started off simply enough. I just wanted to make it a habit. Somewhere along the line I picked up the whole "it takes 28 days to develop a habit" I made a deal with myself. I would go everyday that I was at work for 28 days, for at least 30 minutes and do whatever I could do that day. Some days it was enough to make me huff and puff, some days it wasn't. In the beginning making it through those 30 minutes was really challenging. I saved up all of my must see tv to watch then and only then (thank you Survivor!) I could only go about 2.5 mph on the treadmill before my legs would burn and cuss at me. But, somehow, someway I made it through all 28 days.
I felt so good about achieving that goal that I thought, "hey, let's see how many days I can string together"
All the life affirming gobblydeegook that has happened as a result of my new found dedication to the gym is something for another blog post....this one however is about something else that affirms life. Pain...mother loving crap balls pain.
I won a free entry into a 5k from my job. The 5k is January 25th. Even though I have been going to the gym for a year and am in way better shape than I was, I am not a runner...never have been. As soon as I won the entry I decided to train using the "couch to 5k" system. I downloaded the app on my handy dandy smartphone. I didn't actually look at the app though, because that would be too easy. No, instead I convinced myself that the program was only 6 weeks. Because it was only 6 weeks, I didn't need to start really training until after the holidays. Since I had already been doing a fair amount of cardio work I figured I could start 3 weeks in and have 3 weeks of training and then a week to perfect my time and I would be good to go.
So, I set about my business.
I jumped right in to week 3. Went great..easy peasy. At that point I decided to flip through the rest of the program see what is in store for me. Ha. Ha. Ha. Turns out the program is actually 8 weeks long. I decided...hey I'm super duper in good shape now...flip this program, I'll just start jogging as much as I can. So I did. It went really really great. I knocked like 2 minutes off my mile time. I was able to jog the whole 5k. Feeling good, feeling strong, I got a certain spring in my step...yeah yeah I'm a badass, what of it. I would work into a conversation at any given point "Oh yeah, I'm a little tired I just ran 3 miles" It was (and still is) a pretty big deal to me. I felt so good and so strong that I was jogging 3 days a week and still loving it...I was looking up things on running, like, how to tell when you can start running everyday. Then I decided to go for a jog outside.
All this time I had been training on the treadmill. Turns out, running outside is different than the treadmill. I made it through the run, it wasn't pretty, but I did it. Again, feeling totally badass. I went to bed confident, happy, pleased. Then I woke up a million times as the pain in my legs throbbed on. Crap balls! When I got out of bed in the morning all I thought was "Oh, flip" (only I didn't say flip) It hurt worse than the time I hit myself in the leg with a lead pipe to get out of work (also a different story.
So oh, woe is me. I have shin splints. My 5k is in less than 5 days. I was at the gym this morning and tried to just walk the whole 3.1 miles...but that doesn't feel like a workout to me. I walked 2 miles and then ended up doing short sprints to finish it out. I would like to say that I am going to take it easy until then, but I seriously doubt it.
