WHAT THE DOCTOR SAID...

About a month ago I was on the treadmill when I felt a "feeling" in my leg. Don't know exactly how to describe it - wasn't quite a pop or a snap, but it was something. Instantaneously, my left tibia area was hurting like you wouldn't believe. It's a good thing I was just starting my cool-down, cuz had I been in the middle of my run I would have HAD to stop. I pushed the speed way down and tried to walk it off. I limped around for the next couple of hours and it felt tender all day long. Over the next day or two it seemingly disappeared and by Monday I was good to go again... or maybe I just didn't really feel it because my shin splints were so bad at that time. But within the next two weeks I was able to get my shin splints to disappear (yay!!!!). I was able to do a Wednesday walk/run and a Friday walk/run without ANY shin splints and it felt great. That Sunday I did a bunch of gardening where I was sitting on my knees and leaning back onto my legs and I think I must have strained the injured area again because it's been hurting ever since. I kept running on it, wondering if it could be a stress fracture or maybe some kind of strained muscle or a tendon issue... heck, I don't know anything about this stuff. I have never been a person who pushed herself to physical limits before - I was lucky if I got to the gym once every two months. And to go from that to 5 times a week for 60+ minutes a day - including running which I had never done before at ANY weight - well, I knew that I maybe caused some damage. But I have this 5k coming up at the end of June and I DID NOT want to go to the doctor. I knew what would happen. He would ask me all the necessary questions, tell me to go get x-rays, have me come back, tell me there's nothing wrong with my leg and tell me to rest it stop exercising for a while and use ice as often as possible and use Advil to take down inflammation. Yesterday morning was the day I was supposed to move on to 3.1 miles (the week before was 3.0). I got on, felt more stiff than usual. I generally do feel stiff but the leg loosens up by the second song and then it doesn't really hurt too much anymore. But yesterday... it never did loosen up. It stayed stiff and sore and I was limping through both the walking and the running. Finally at about 1.5 miles I just slowed way down and walked it until I hit my 35 minutes (the lowest amount I will allow myself to do). I decided that this was enough and I would go to the doctor. And when I got there here is what happened: He asked me all the necessary questions, told me to go get x-rays, had me come back, told me there's nothing wrong with my leg (no broken bone) and told me to rest it, stop exercising for a while and use ice as often as possible and use Advil to take down inflammation. Yep. I called it. The ONLY good thing that came out of that visit (I had to try to be positive in the midst of shelling out a bunch of money) is that I KNOW that there is no hairline crack in my bone or something. I kept picturing myself on the treadmill, running at like 7 miles an hour when all of a sudden my leg snaps and I go flying off the treadmill (yes, I do have an overactive imagination). I told my doctor that I couldn't stop exercising and why and so he told me to do what I need to do, but cut way back on exercise on the days other than my training days and try to get swimming in also. Oh yeah... and he also said not to expect it to heal until I stop running. So.... I have gone back in and changed my personal goals on SP as far as how much time I want to exercise per day and how many calories I want to burn. I made sure that it also changed my calorie range for each day... now I get less food to eat. I was struggling to stay anywhere CLOSE to my calorie ranges on the weekend and now I have like 400 calories less! I really gotta watch it.

And in other news? How am I doing at not weighing myself? Horrible!!! I thought I could do it, but I think cold turkey is not going to work for me. Saturday and Sunday I weighed myself twice each day (which is WAY less than usual). Yesterday I forced myself to not step on that scale, but when I got on today I found that I am 3 pounds up! And now I am telling myself, "See, this is what happens when you don't weigh every day!!!" Maybe I need to just cut back to ONCE a day first and then try to do every other day the next week. Cuz cutting it out all together isn't something I am ready for. I felt so stressed out yesterday... and now look at me! I am up three pounds! I'm just not ready to give up the scale yet...