13 days

13 days.

That’s how far away my half marathon is.

Am I ready? Maybe. I’ve been a bit MIA lately. A few people have asked me where I’ve been and how my training has been going. And it’s been going pretty well. It was.

I have been so preoccupied with other things going on in my life that I haven’t kept up with my weekly training updates. But I’ve still been doing it. I completed 30for60, kinda. I missed the last 2 days of it, but considering there were 62 days in December & January combined, I still feel that I completed 60 days. I win.

So I was still on plan with my running schedule. Check dailymile. It’ll vouch for me.

Until 2 weeks ago.

I got a blister on my toe and figured it would go away in a day or two. But it didn’t it turned out to be an abscess with an ingrown toenail sticking into it. Or the other way around. Either way, it hurt. I dug out the nail. It got slightly better, but then started hurting again. I had a podiatrist dig it out for me. I was told there would be numbing involved. There wasn’t. Liars. And they gave me instructions on how to care for it.

I haven’t been able to put a sneaker on at all. That’s a lie. During the 2 day period when it was feeling better, I put a sneaker on to hopefully do elliptical at the gym, but I could barely stand, let alone walk or try to be elliptic. I did the bike instead. It was less painful, but no picnic. The winner in all this has been the pool. I’ve been swimming, though thinking back now, maybe all that chlorine hasn’t been helpful.

My point is: I haven’t run in 2 weeks. My race is in 13 days. My longest run was 11 miles on January 15th. My 12-mile run ended at 6 miles a few weeks later. That’s when I noticed the “blister”.

Am I screwed? Or just very, very rested. I guess we will see. I’m not backing out of this. It will get done. Even if I can’t wear sneakers, I’ll figure something out.

I’ll run in flip-flops if I have to. There’s no way I’m missing my vacation in Florida for a toe. Eff toes.

Running is the devil. It hurts people.

As I sit here with ice on my shins, I’m reflecting back to the past few months. I’ve been so emotionally drained because I’m pushing myself physically and yet, still, I cannot run for 3 minutes straight. I’ve been doing this since January. Swimming, biking and trying to run. I’ve surpassed my swimming and biking goals easily. Yet I’m stuck on running. I’ve tried the Couch to 5K program in the past and haven’t been able to move past week 3 because I can’t get up to running for 3 minutes straight. So in beginning this triathlon journey I decided to follow a triathlon plan and work on the running that way. It didn’t work. So I switched to other running plans. I tried running drills, I tried short intervals for longer periods of time, I tried everything I could think of, but I just couldn’t get this running thing done. Finally I decided to give Couch to 5K another chance. I worked my way up through week 2 and I felt strong and confident that maybe I could do this. I had been building up endurance and strength in other areas since January, and now I needed to work on the running. Finally, I hit week 3 and even though I knew I hadn’t been able to do it in the past, I felt confident. Until I tried it again. I’ve tried Week 3, day 1 three times now. I told myself I wasn’t going to go past a day that I couldn’t complete and go about it at my own pace, but that I’d keep to the schedule so that I didn’t do too much too fast and get hurt.


Well guess what. I’m hurt. Last night I went for a walk with my mom and dogs, but decided to do a few running intervals up and down the side streets of our complex. I started having shin pain and had to walk most of the time. Tonight, I tried Week 3 day 1 again and couldn’t run for more than 45 seconds before I had to walk due to the pain in my shins. First, I had a hissy-fit and flailed my arms, stomped my foot (which made my shin hurt more) then cried "Why the hell can't I just DO this?". Finn looked at me curiously, probably wondering if I was talking to him or myself. Then I re-grouped, because now I was crying in public and I tried doing a speed-walker shuffle/pee-pee dance run-walk thing. That alleviated the pain and I was going faster than my normal walking, but it’s still not running. And I’m sure I looked wicked cool. Seriously, just try and picture it.


I started thinking about why I’m having shin pain now, after 6 months of trying this running stuff and I think I’ve found the culprit. Pavement. I’ve done almost all of my training up until now on the treadmill. Besides my 5K races, I haven’t been outside at all before Week 2 day 3 of Couch to 5K. Even though I’m completely discouraged, and pissed off that I can’t do this, I’m not a quitter and I will complete this.


I have two options right now. I can continue my training on the treadmill and finish the couch to 5K program on the treadmill and then transition to pavement after I know I can run for 30+ minutes straight. Or, I can start over. Week 1, Day 1 on the pavement and build up that way. I'm seriously torn between the two. Both have pros and cons. Your thoughts?


Either way right now I need to take a few days off of running so my shins can stop hurting. I also need to be stretching more. Maybe take a few yoga classes like I keep talking about to get myself more limber. 


But no matter what I decide, I will never quit. Quitting is a weakness and I’m way too proud for that bullshit.


By the way, don’t forget to check out my “What’s in a Name” contest. It ends on Friday night. Hurry up and enter, because as it stands, Jenn and Richelle are winning by default as they have the only entries! And really with so few entries your odds of winning are huge!