S-M-R-T

Today's been pretty eventful. It's a New Student Orientation day on campus, which always means lots of new, excited students roaming all over the place. I also do 4 presentations in 5 hours, so it's a busy day.

Thankfully, today is also a rest day. A MUCH NEEDED rest day. See, yesterday I might not have made the world's greatest life choices. After waking up at 5am and feeling my left shin literally aching in pain before even standing up, I knew a morning workout was out. Then, I couldn't get away from the desk for an afternoon workout. I was OK with that. I figured it was my body telling me it needed an extra rest day. Even with compression sleeves under my dress pants all day at work, my shins (particularly my left shin) were screaming and just not happy. 

So while I told myself over and over it was OK that I took an unplanned rest day, 5pm rolled around and somehow my internal mental conversation changed to "NO! You can't take a rest day today. Your rest day is TOMORROW. You cannot take 2 rest days back to back. Not happening. Get your ass to the gym."

<Spoiler: NOT smart decision about to be made.>

So, I went to the gym.

I KNOW, I KNOW. MEAGAN! Stupid life choice! I know.

<Spoiler: Even less smart decisions about to be made.>

I told myself there was a 6pm Spinning Class I could go to. NO impact. Totally safe and fine for the shins. Uh huh. I didn't take into account that I'd get to the gym at 5:20 from work and have 40 minutes to kill before class started.

Now a SANE and SMART person would have just hung around and waited, maybe spent a few relaxing minutes in the sauna or done some stretching or foam rolling. Me? Not so smart.

(source)

Despite knowing better, despite even consciously thinking "Meagan, this isn't a great plan" I hit the treadmill. BAD PLAN, MEAGAN.

I know! I know! What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking "I know I shouldn't run. I know it's going to do more harm than good, but hello! You have a certain number of miles to get in and dammit- you have to! it's on THE PLAN. So, man up, Meagan. It'll only hurt a little. It's not big deal. You'll be fiiiiine."

This mental chat continued every step of my run. Every painful step. Sharp, intense pains flying down my left shin. I made it 2.5 miles @ 9:00/mile pace before calling it.

It was stupid. It was unneeded. It added NOTHING to my marathon training. It did nothing for me. It was STUPID.

My shins were more than screaming when I stepped off the treadmill. So, I sat around for 10 minutes, giving them some time to stop burning. I told myself if they still ached this bad in 10 minutes I'd skip spinning and just head home.

<Spoiler: I lied.>

10 minutes later and while the pain might have been SLIGHTLY less, it was still definitely there. But, I told myself "Hey, spinning's totally fine. Hello! It's SPINNING. No impact. You'll be fine. It'll be practically the same as just sitting on the couch. And, you have your compression sleeves on. You'll be fine. Man up. Go to spinning."

So, i went. Turns out, spinning's not exactly impact free. There's standing on the pedals... hello. IMPACT. Not as much as running (duh), but the constant in and out of the saddle isn't "no impact". I made it through. it definitely didn't hurt as much as running, but it wasn't a smart decision either. I should have just gone home and did some RICE-ing.

I KNOW better. I know better. I know I know better. I made a bad decision. I think I just really wanted a good sweat session. I had some pent up frustration from life-stuff and just need to sweat it out. I should have figured out a different outlet and given my body the rest it needed. I know that. Really.

Luckily, no serious damage was done. By the end of spinning, while my shins were still tight and sore, they weren't feeling nearly as sore as they were before spinning. I'm feeling pretty good today. I'm, again, rocking some hot compression gear today and am taking the WHOLE DAY AS A REST DAY. No "it was only 60 light minutes on the elliptical" nonsense. TOTAL and complete rest day... unless you count walking to and from the table with doughnuts on it at this morning at Orientation's Welcome event two times as exercise. I'm planning to do some more ice, compression and elevation tonight and hope tomorrow brings shins good as new so I can do my long run (only 13-14 miles! WOOWOO!) pain free. Don't worry... I PROMISE... if something doesn't feel right-- I'll stop.

I PROMISE.

Ok. So, lesson learned. Sometimes I make crappy decisions. I'm learning. Slooooowly.

In other news, yesterday was also my ADORABLE and PERFECT nephews first day of kindergarten!!!

He's SOOOO big! I feel like it was just yesterday he was only a week old and took a HUGE poop on my leg when I was changing his diaper. Yes, I just put that story on the internet for the world to see. I seriously considered putting the pic on here with it, but decided I didn't want to embarrass the poor 5-year old too much. Anyway-- he's far too big. I told him he needs to start growing down. He didn't like that. He likes being a big boy. I like him, so I guess I'll just have to deal. Anyway-- GOOD LUCK WITH KINDERGARTEN, C!!! I'm SO proud of you and love you more than the sun, and the moon, and the stars!