Recently, I’ve been noticing my shins are sore to the touch. They don’t bother me when I run and they don’t throb or ache when I’m done. However, rubbing lotion on my legs or having something rub against my shin doesn’t feel so good.

My instant thought was that it must be Shin Splints. I think every athlete or runner has suffered from Shin Splints at some point in their life but not me. People are very quick to say they have Shin Splints though but I was convinced that wasn’t what was going on.

First of all, with the half right around the corner, I wasn’t about to stop running all together. Second of all, my symptoms just didn’t match up with standard Shin Splint symptoms. After talking to a coworker today, I learned that after a run your shoes take 48-72 hours to fully recuperate. I know that may sound silly, they’re just shoes after all, but it does make sense if you think about it.

If you trade out your shoes every other day, your foot pattern won’t wear the same which prevents injury. You’ll also extend the life of your shoes. Since I have 2 extra pairs of running shoes collecting dust in my closet, I’m going to try this theory out and see how it works. Today was my rest day and I did notice less tenderness in my shins. I’m hoping that making sure I get enough rest throughout the week and swap shoes during the week will improve my symptoms.

Breakfast

I know I’m super boring with my breakfast recently but I just can’t seem to get enough of sliced bananas with TJ’s crunchy almond butter. The almond butter definitely helps tide me over longer which helps me cut down on my snacking.

A little while later, I broke out some watermelon fries for my mid-morning snack.

The watermelon I had cut up was on it’s last leg. So I only ate part of it ’cause the consistency was starting to freak me out.

Lunch

Since I’ve been in a bit of a “lunch rut” recently, I decided to  mix it up a bit today so I don’t continue to crave greasy, fried foods! The base of my salad stayed pretty much the same with baby spinach, shredded carrots, mushrooms and some grape tomatoes. But, I added on a hard boiled egg (not Beauty Detox approved) and used a buffalo ranch (light Hidden Valley Ranch with Frank’s Red Hot mixed in – also not BD approved) to spice things up a bit!

Oh, and because the buffalo ranch dressing wasn’t enough, I added some sliced pickled jalapeno slices too. While the dressing was far from healthy, this salad was SO good! The smell of the jalapenos had my mouth watering as soon as I broke it out for lunch. Best of all, it left me very satisfied afterward and not feeling totally deprived of everything good and tasty in the world.

That last statement may have been a bit dramatic but sometimes eating clean and healthy can feel like more of a chore than you’d like so you’ve got to make it work.

Shortly after my salad, I had some carrots and red bell pepper slices and Tuscan Garden hummus.

Snack

A little while before I broke out my salad I snacked on a KIND bar. I have a small addiction to these things but I’ve been trying to space out how often I eat them so I’m not buying them so often ’cause they’re not the cheapest.

Right before the end of the day, my coworker had a few Cheez-Its left over she didn’t want so I ate about a 1/4 cup of those for a nice salty cap to my day.

 

Dinner

Tyler and I have been on a bruschetta kick recently so we kept with the trend and had more with dinner tonight.

He grilled up some shrimp skewers and we had balsamic green beans and mushrooms and bread with a slice of melted mozzarella on top.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What running injuries have you suffered from? What did you do to recover?