Good News! Yippee!

Thursday 22/06/06:

Decided to head out after all at 5.45am - my throat and nose were feeling much better and although it had been raining all during the night, it sounded like it had stopped. Also I knew I would not get a run in tonight as usual on a Thursday, as my daughter has testing tonight for her first gymnastics badge and I wanted to be there to watch! Just as I was about to head downstairs I heard the rain start up again, so not wanting to get soaked thru right now, I went back and grabbed my Asics jacket. Even though its got all the vents and is a very thin specialist running type jacket, I still very rarely wear it for actually running in as it gets too hot! Luck would have it that it was only a shower and by the time I'd laced up the shoes and done a bit of light stretching, it had stopped again. So:

Brisk walk warmup: 5mins
Easy paced run: 18mins (3km)
Steady/hard paced run: 14mins (3km)
Brisk walk cooldown: 5mins

Started out easy to see how the leg would feel. Could think of nothing else and was trying to cement in my mind how it felt at varying speeds to be able to relay it to the physio. However as Murphys Law would have it, it felt really good and was barely noticeable! By my turn around point I was so warm that I took off both the jacket and my gloves and had to run with the jacket tied around my waist, which I hate! Due to the rain - which failed to return, the temp was much more bearable - around 7 degrees. Put in some faster paced parts on the way back, but leg still behaved quite well! This I was glad about of course, but was wondering if I'd jumped the gun on booking the physio...

However, when I saw her this afternoon I discovered I certainly do have a problem, but hopefully it is not going to stop me from running! As soon as she got "hands on" she immediately identified an area that she describes as a "lump" but to the untrained it just feels more like a bit of a raise in the lower inside tibia and even though I have been rubbing in Arnica regularly, I had not noticed it felt "abnormal' ! She believes it is scar tissue from a recent injury that has flaired up due to recently increasing milage and a couple of other factors. I am fairly sure I can pinpoint what that injury was - I totally bashed my lower shin with a heavy piece of furniture when shifting house on 1st April, leaving a huge "egg" and bruise on my shin for several weeks. It hurt to run on at the time, but as the bruising subsided, so did the discomfort and I figured it had totally healed. Also I was not running as much then. So her diagnosis makes sense. Mainly I am just relieved that its not related to the dreaded shin splints of the past or another stress fracture. She does not feel I need to stop running at this point and after a session of massage (those physios really know how to use their thumbs, ah?! ouch!!) ultra-sound and heat, she said it had already improved. I will be seeing her 3 times next week for repeat treatments and also some massage on my calves, which as usual are very tight! So a very good outcome all round and on top of that the throat has been heaps better today and I almost feel as if the cold is passing me by! :-)