Shin Splints

I've had shin splints for most of my life. They started way back in volleyball in middle school. I remember complaining to my parents about pain whenever we'd do jumping drills (i.e. bunny hop type things over the court lines on the floor for up to a min). Dad ended up buying me a wrap that I'd wrap around my shin and wear it underneath my knee sock. This would seem to help except for the times where I would wrap it too tight and my foot would start to go numb. I never really did anything to try and get rid of the pain. I may have iced but I don't remember ever being strict about it at the age of 13. And then I didn't make the volleyball team sophomore year of high school and thought my life was over.

But then I ran a local 5k and running became my new obsession. I don't recall when my shin splints started up again in high school. I mostly just remember running through pain and taking ice baths at school in the training room. I would sometimes take it easy in speed workouts, especially sprints. My coach told me to never wear flip flops so I always wore my running shoes at school. I do remember both Mom and Dad trying to motivate me to be rehabbing and to do calf raises on the stairs to strengthen them. I'd always fight them because of how painful it was. I remember not really liking my spikes because running in them hurt my shins. I remember bringing icy hot to every meet and being that girl (every time I smell it now it brings me back). Having this chronic pain was a reason why I had no desire to run collegiately. I was tired of the pain and didn't run much after high school. I got back into running for a short time entering some races, but never doing anything over a 5k.

I didn't really get back into the sport until I became obsessed with triathlon. I'd foam roll and ice but I was never super disciplined about it and I think training in three sports instead of one really helped. I'd feel some pain here and there but it was never horrible. Then cut to marathon training. It was about 4 weeks into our plan and I could feel the pain in my left shin coming back. I was able to think about it differently being in massage school and knowing the anatomy of the area. I took a week off and should have cross trained but didn't. The pain went away and this was thanks to getting structural massages on my calves almost twice a week at school.

Then this weekend, Tyler and I had our "short" long run of 12 miles. I was all ready to go and was limping to the kitchen. While my oatmeal cooked in the microwave, I stood their contemplating whether or not I should run. I wanted to, but my gut was telling me I shouldn't. I texted Tyler and told her I'd cross train instead. She was supportive and smashed the run herself!!

And now I'm here with my left calf elevated on the couch because I've found that R.I.C.Eing and those darn calf raises has really helped alleviate some pain. And while writing this it's making me think how having the strength to take a rest day is just as hard as having the strength to finish a race. It's hard as a runner to take a day off, but I've come to listen to my body more than I ever had in high school.

Take Three

Yup, I'm back. Over a year and almost a half since my last post. I'm newly 24. My little tiny kitten is now a year and a half, but still acts like a little baby. I am no longer serving but went back to school- for Massage Therapy (this experience will be saved for a later post). I moved back home to save money while at school and am currently awaiting for my license to become active so I can begin working full time. In the last 4 weeks, I've been rewatching Friends, training at my new job, helping my mom out with her blog, 365 Days of Baking and More, and probably most importantly marathon training.

Tyler texted me over Christmas and said she was moving back in with her parents and was planning on training for a marathon. Coincidentally, my parents moved to a house a street away from hers. It was perfect timing because I'd be able to start training while still in school and then have 8 weeks after I graduated to continue training. Right now, tomorrow marks a month out from that first 26.2 for the both of us. I'd say training has gone pretty well for us considering we both started with little training base and had never run over 13 miles before. Our farthest is 18 after the planned 19 this past weekend didn't happen because we got lost on a trail but the views were great.

From now until the marathon I'll write some updates but being an amateur marathoner, I won't be offering any advice. I've also committed to the Tone It Up Bikini Series. This will be the third time I've attempted it and the first time I plan on completing it. I've even made an Instagram account for this new endeavor (runfitlex) to which I've also decided to rename this blog to. I loved the ring that "For the Love of Running" had, but had found out the name had already been taken. I always come back to running and love following the journey of other women in the sport. I'm excited to be back to spending my free time with this new hobby. I must have really liked it before if I came back to it. So here we go, for a third time! 

'A' is for Athlete

Having a "type a" personality is usually defined as someone being regimented or particular about how things go because they like being in control at all times. They don't like seeing an outcome that they weren't able to be in charge of. They're often anxious and impatient and live off the deadlines they set for themselves. If you want a more clear picture of this kind of person, watch some Gossip Girl and observe Blair Waldorf, you'll learn quickly. 

I never saw myself as one of these types of people except for maybe within the last couple of years. I'm known for being really laid back, indecisive, and quite. I would never, ever, consider myself to have a "type a" personality. However, when it comes to being an athlete, I obviously have some type a in me. I'm a competitive, ambitious, and pretty impatient person by nature which doesn't really fit the "type b" personality traits. These traits have more to do with my athletic self more than anything else. For example, the other day it was in my schedule to run 3 easy miles because the day before I had done 5 miles at tempo pace. I felt great for the tempo workout, the best I had felt running like that in awhile. I wasn't feeling the same the next day. 3 super easy miles at 8:30 pace was more than fine by me, but Dad didn't think so. We were easily pushing 8:15 pace. When we hit the trail on the run he had just kinda took off while I tried to get back to 8:30/ mile but slower because we were trail running. I could have been super competitive and kicked it in with him but staying back had a lot to do with the fact that my training plan said to do 3 easy miles. If a person with a "type a" personality had gone over or under the 3 miles at a pace that was way too fast they would have probably had anxiety. I'm don't go this far with it but something inside of me always feels wrong. And then tonight at the local track practice I felt the same way. Where I live, there are controlled burns for the forest. I don't know if today's smoke was from a controlled burn or not but the air (it was also really cold) was really thick and I was having a lot of trouble breathing. And it wasn't the trouble breathing I was familiar with. No, this was a "I'm sucking in air but nothing's going in my lungs. Oh now comes a mini panic attack because I can't breathe." type of thing. The workout involved some interval pacing and I was feeling so awesome and fast but when you're feeling awesome and fast your body also needs that oxygen and I was not getting enough. I grew frustrated but let it go because workouts aren't always perfect and this is how you learn because adversity (aka breathing issues) makes you stronger. So I shook it off like Taylor told me to and finished out the workout best I could. 

There were a lot of things I could continue to say about this subject, I think. But it's 11 at night and my body is telling me to go to sleep and that the last few hours of Christmas music was enough for tonight. 

Oh, and I found this quote tonight- "Stay close to what keeps you feeling alive." Mmmm yeah I think being an athlete (more specifically running) is what I need to stay close to. 

#igotitfrommymama

So as some of you may already know, I am the daughter of a food blogger who has had some recent success. 365 Days of Baking is a blog my mom started back in 2010 when I was a little freshman in college, four years ago. She started it as a hobby while she was still a stay-at-home mom. Mom wanted to challenge herself to bake for 365 consecutive days. And that she did, with only a few minor setbacks. But with myself almost a sophomore, and my sister not soon from college herself, my mom took up a job as the office manager at a local vet clinic.The blog was put on hold for a little while until the family moved to New Hampshire on a whim. Mom became more interested in the idea that this could create a real income for the family. So she dove right in last year and has made steps to create a profitable website where people can see just how easy baking can be. Recently, every call home to New Hampshire from Arizona (I recently moved back to AZ after living in New Hampshire for a year and 11 years in Arizona before that) I hear something about how well my parents are doing because of the blog. It's awesome and I couldn't be happier for my mom because she's found her passion and is able to make money while doing it. 

So with this and a little tangent, a friend and former teammate from high school has mentioned to me a few times that I should get back into photography. For those of you who didn't know high school me, I was really into photography. Like really into it. I had undertaken a project, much like my moms, where I was going to take a picture of myself or something everyday for a year. I was obsessed with Flickr and Tumblr and had made some friends through it who I still talk to to this day. My teenageness showed in every self-portrait but people loved my pictures and I loved expressing my artistic side that my parents said I inherited from both of my grandmothers. To only fuel my obsession, I wanted to study the medium into college. I did that but found that I didn't like being told what to take pictures of. So with some changes in majors, the start of a new obsession (triathlon), a year long adventure in New England, and trying to figure out what I want to be when I am an adult, I've decided to give blogging a shot. Maybe a photoblog with some other snippets in life will take me somewhere I haven't even explored yet. You can make it online nowadays, I've seen it. Waiting tables pays well for a twenty-something who's trying to figure things out but it's never been a dream of mine to bring people their food. Here I go, following my mom's blogging footsteps and posting my thoughts onto the internet for the world to see. 

This blog won't be focused on anything for awhile. My brain tends to change a lot so, there will be some triathlon things (actually a lot), some photography things, some #twentysomethingproblems, and who knows what else. And there's this quote by my favorite long distance runner Kara Goucher, "dream big and dream often" and I think it explains me in a nutshell. So here it goes, I am now a blogger.