Geez, what a difference a few days makes! After my last run, which was short but fantastic, and the run before that, which was long and fantastic, I decided to skip a day. Just one day. That's fine. I've done that before. But when I ate a heavy meal after skipping that day, one day became two days, and then two days became three days. And I topped one of them off with — yes — another heavy meal. So here I am on the fourth day, experiencing mild shin splints during a short run. Picture me kicking myself.
Before my run this morning, I purchased a banana from the mini-mart. (Bananas always give me good run energy.) Standing in line, it struck me how much of a food jungle we live in. The only health things I saw, other than bananas, were water and lemons. (Why lemons?) This is nothing new of course, but coming on the heels of the eye-opening revelation that I cannot let up, it really had an impact. Here are today's stats:
- Weather. 59°F, drizzling with a nice breeze
- Location. Siskey YMCA newly resurfaced outdoor track. (It was nice!)
- Distance. 1.05 miles
- Calories. 91
- Start Time. 8:54am
- Run Time. 16:55 minutes
- Average Pace. 16:04 minutes/mile (better than my last run. I suppose that's some consolation for not being able to run as far as I wanted to.
- Playlist. The sound of excited young soccer players and their parents playing games on the field. They were loud and energizing. Watching dozens of young bodies run effortlessly was good inspiration for me!
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Condition. Well, let's just say I was thankful the be out there. After three days off, my condition was not stellar. I experienced mild shin splints in my left leg. I have not had shin splints in over a month. I also experienced an overall feeling of heaviness in both legs. My breathing was good, so that felt nice. While my time was relatively decent, my endurance was not.
These are the consequences of taking more than one day off, and then topping that craziness off with heavy foods. Please help me never to do that again!
Question: How do you bounce back after taking too much time off and/or eating unhealthfully in a big way?
