iPhone Spotting

While writing a portion of this I spied my first iPhone on the train. Some older lady (late fourties, early fifties) was navigating around and looks like she was doing an email or something, no headphones. From the 10 feet away looking down on her, I can say the menu screen transition animation is hypnotizing, but other than that, it looks like she’s struggling typing. Oh, and everyone standing around her (no more seats) is looking at her. I guess I’m in the group, but I’m on the upper deck and sitting.

I'll just say, I'm not going to have an iPhone anytime soon, if ever. Just not praticle for corporate email at this point.

On the bench

Apparently, being a beginner runner is not a walk (or run) in the park. I was on holiday last week and right on schedule with my training. I did 8 miles without stopping the first day with my buddy and we even ran at our desired pace. It was perfect. Then later in the week, I did a three mile, five mile and three and a half mile spaced between days of rest. I was finally doing the full training plan…

As the week progressed, I felt more and more pain in my right leg, which had previously been pain free. A few weeks back it was my left, but it was perfect. The new pain was in the middle of the shin and just inside of the tibia. It was a weird pain. The pain was really only after periods of non-use. When I would stand from sitting, it would hurt for a while, for example. It wasn’t nagging, just felt like I needed to stretch. Getting out of bed in the morning was the worst, as I felt that I couldn’t put all my weight on it. After stretching, though, it was O.K.

Over a few days, the pain became regular. I had to quit on my 6 mile run after doing just a mile as I could tell I was limping. From what I’ve read, running with pain is fine. If your mechanics change, you need to stop. So, I stopped. The pain continued and I went to the doctor early this week to make sure it wasn’t a possible stress fracture, which would be a pretty serious and require at least a month of rest from running.

The doc confirmed it didn’t appear to be skeletal, but rather muscular. So a regular shin splint, not serious. I got some anti-inflammatory meds and ordered not to run for at least two more days after the pain completely subsides. Then I’ll have to hash out a gradual plan to get me back on schedule. I’m figuring this will throw me off about 2 weeks, but I can still do it. I AM NOT THROWING IN THE TOWEL.

This is a minor setback and a learning experience. Tons of shin splint prevention techniques are only a Google search away.

In the meantime, I can do other aerobic exercises as long as there is no pain. So, biking will be back in fashion and I get to dust off the elliptical. Need to keep as much endurance that I can.

I'm feeling better today, one day after the doc visit. Hopefully, I'll be back on the road in a little more than a week.