Shin Splints

Tuesday, 05 December 2006

For the first time since I started my weight loss efforts, almost two years ago, I'm facing an exercise challenge. Aside from a few days when I was sick, I have walked every day for at least 30 minutes. In fact, over the past week, I had bumped it up to 60 to 90 minutes a day, and was often running on the treadmill for 20 minutes or so. Well, apparently this increase in exercise was a shock to my shins, because I felt a mild discomfort in both last week, but now my right one is so painful, it hurts to touch. I managed throgh 30 minutes on our treadmill yesterday, but by the evening, when it was time to take the dog for his usual 30 to 40 minute walk, I only made it down the to the corner and back. OUCH!

So, this is frustrating for me. It's not like when I was sick and didn't exercise, because when I wasn't feeling well, I was hardly eating. Now, I just have to take it easy for a a few weeks and really watch what I eat, because I don't have my regular exercise to help compensate if I eat a bit too much. Darren has permenant damange to his achilles tendon, and can't flex his foot fully. He finds the exercise bike much easier to do. I hate the exercise bike, but I guess I'm going to have to drag myself to the gym more often and give it a go. It's too cold to actually ride my bike outside. Today I did 20 minutes on the treadmill at about a mile/hour less than I usually do, but it hurt the whole time. I did a little of a yoga video, but then the kids came down and that was over.

I guess it's easy to get stuck in routines, and sometimes something that makes us adjust a bit can be a good thing. But, not being able to walk comfortably isn't a good thing, and I hope it heals quickly. I really feel for athletes that are used to intense workouts and then injure themselves. It must be challenging to just sit and wait for things to heal, hoping they will.

Off to eat breakfast... I got this bag of organic apples, and I can't believe how big one of them is. It's the size of a softball. That'll make a good breakfast with a handful of raw nuts.