Stupidity is painful in running (unlike most of life ) to the stupid person.

This is a copy of  a post on my Wordpress blog. I have begun to post in both as I decide which interface I like better - and which one draws more readers.

First comment today - is on my leg. The calf/shin doesn't "hurt" anymore. Though It still feels off, definitely not up to running yet. Its hard to describe how it feels (wonky doesn't explain it does it?), kind of tight, almost sore - but not quite.. Today is my first day of not wearing a Compression Sleeve to see how it feels.

Now the rest of Today's post is brought to you courtesy of my old friend Michelle, who was kind enough many (many, many) years ago to rent me a room back in my Navy days. She had responded to my last post with this:

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been thinking about your situation and wanted to post my 2 cents. Take it or leave it.

I have watched you post about injury after injury which is “normally” a indication of over-training. I’m wondering if there is a way to have someone assess your running posture? Since you have a background in track, is it possible that you are running too forward and too fast (indicative of track running) for longer endurance runs? The shin splints tends to suggest this as well. If this is the case, I would highly suggest taking a look at Jeff Galloways running plans. He uses splits to keep you from really over doing it, but surprisingly speeds up your overall time. I use his training plans all the time. Check out the Disney World Half Marathon plans – that’s the next half marathon for Keith and I.

I think your head is in the right place with the Couch-to-5k idea, but I can TOTALLY see how that would bore the crap out of you! I know it would to me!!! But, building a good base is what ALL of the running blogs, articles, and fellow runners say.

I think that Michelle hit the nail on the head here. I was running well last year - and then got sidelined for 5 months due to the Inguinal Hernia repair. My doctor gave me the ok to start running within a few weeks - and I did. But if I look at the mileage from when I actually started running, by month (thank you dailymile):

January - 1 mile.
February - 15 Miles.
March -44 Miles.
April - 65 Miles
May - 30 Miles
June - 30 Mils
July - 67 Miles (Fairly significant jump here - perhaps contributed to my August Muscle Pull?)
Aug - 67 Miles
Sep - 31 Miles
Oct - 21 Miles. (in a week or so)

Injuries:
6 October - Shin Splints - Left Leg.
If we look at the previous weeks:
2nd week in Sept - None.
3rd week in Sept - None
4th week in Sept -4 miles (one day)
5th week in sept - 32 miles. (4 miles to 32 miles.. That's not an idiotic jump, now is it?)
1st week in Oct - INJURY!!!!!

6 September - Pulled LEFT Calf Muscle from mis-stepping on treadmill - First run after previous pull or from trying again to quickly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
22 August - Pulled LEFT Calf Muscle. (No indicators on this one, running happily and it just went!)
If we look at the previous month or two:
Last Week in June - 3 miles.
July Week 1 - 8 miles
Week 2- 18 miles (in hind site, a 125% increase in a week probably isn't wise)
Week 3 - 11 miles
Week 4 - 16 Miles
Week 5 - 18 miles
Aug week 1 - 12 Miles
Aug Week 2- 25 Miles (Jump in mileage!!)
Aug week 3 - 4 miles (not injured, just lazy)
Aug week 4 - INJURY in an attempt at a longer/faster run. -

10 May - Pulled Calf Muscle - Right Leg. - after finding out I didn't know how to run down hill in VFFs.

I think over all (if you are still reading at this point) - the numbers show pretty well that I was stupid. Guilty of thinking my body could handle mileage like it did in my early 20s. Even after seeing this over and over - I still tried to do it again - apparently I am NOT the brightest bulb in the bunch. Looking over my blog posts for the year-so-far - This is VERY evident..

Off to take a look at Jeff Galloway's training plans now.