I share all this as I deal with my shin/ankle issue that came up a little over a week ago, and seemed to come out of nowhere as I was doing so much better with my Posterior Tibial Tendon (PTT) issue and while having a little soreness in the front of my shin had figured I had bumped it. After a week of not running but riding a good amount, as riding usually seems fine when I have a “running” injury, I still have some swelling but it is largely in the shin area now as the ankle swelling is mostly gone. I could say it is better than it was as, again, my ankle swelling has pretty much all gone and the soreness is less but I can’t say it is better as there is still soreness and swelling. While riding does not seem to bother it as much as running, since no pounding, I do notice when climbing or needing to work things more it does seem a little more sore. This seems to be a case of riding not necessarily making things worse but adds enough stress that it does not allow it to heal as it should and may be extending the healing process.
After my ankle swelling went down, but shin soreness and swelling remained, I began to wonder if my initial thought about it being from an ankle sprain was incorrect. While the twisting of my ankle may have exacerbated an existing issue I am thinking the symptoms seem something other than shins splints but not really sure. I initially wondered if it was Compartment Syndrome, or a less serious form of it, but while I have swelling and some tightness I do not have many of the other symptoms – could be just a bad strain on the shin muscle - so I am just not sure. I will be going to the PT this week and hope to get a better idea of what it is and a plan of action. Till then, and possibly for the rest of the week, it will be no riding or running. I think I could ride if I spun a higher cadence but to be safe and to help to get the swelling down and healing farther along the road I am just going to rest it as much as I can.
This then comes back the initial questions in the title. While I think I may be able to, as stated above, ride easy and just spin I have to ask why and what would it accomplish. With no racing till August, so a lot of time to get ready even if I took off 2 weeks, and if I look long term at what is best for my health and future goals taking time off should be an easy answer, what is 2 weeks in the large scheme of things, but if you are like me it is not usually as easy a decision as it should be.
Having a combination of a “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO) and just wanting to train makes having a long -erm goal, such as health and performance (in that order), all the more important. It is important because it is by having a long-term goal you can weigh the short-term time of rest to heal against how not resting will affect those goals. In my case not fully resting and maybe just training less might work and after many weeks have the issue gone or, and this is what usually happens with me, I will end up needing to take a week or too off later when things do not fully heal and long term I am actually farther behind in training by putting off what should have been done initially.
From this I hope you take away at least a couple things: First, is having a long-term goal that not only focuses on results but has at its most important component that of good, no great, health. Secondly, do not see resting an injury just as a negative – even though it will seem as such at the time – but as having some positive aspects in that you will get needed the rest that probably is needed. Having these two aspects thought through now makes for easier decisions later. Just remember in the grand scheme of things 1-2 weeks off is a small price to pay for years of athletic performance.
Overview of Weeks Runs and Rides:
Due the shin/ankle issue I took off this week from running. While I did not run I did end up getting in more riding miles than initially planned. My goal for the week was to ride 200+ miles and I had that by Thursday and then as the weather was good and I felt pretty good I decided to ride a Century, 12th one of the year, so ended up with a little over 300 miles for the week. Probably doing 300+ miles riding was not the wisest, even though the pace was not hard on them, with regards to my shin. I was happy with the weeks riding as felt pretty good on the rides and the Century went very well in that it felt great even with a good deal of climbing at over 8200+ feet and it being a hot day and always nice to get outside when one has been riding in the basement so much.
Also, this week I did my first time trial in many years in doing the Barnsburg Road Time Trial (8 miles) out near Somerset. Without looking to peak for it, even rode in the AM, and not being very rested I think the TT went great for a first one in years. I rode 20:31 on a windy day, headwind coming back, and know many places I could pull out time so look forward to the next TT to get my time under 20:00. Need to do some more TT work to get a better feel for gearing and keeping a good pace and not letting up as I did on this one.
Saturday’s 100 Miler
- Monday: Ride – 50.23 Miles
- Tuesday AM Ride: 8.69 Miles Warmup & 25.29 Miles Meetup - 33.98 Total
- Tuesday PM: Ride – 10.54 Miles TT Warmup & TT 7.97 Miles & 8.22 TT Cooldown - 26.73 Total
- Wednesday: Ride – 19.05 Miles Warmup & 32.51 BMTR Mid-Week Ride - 51.56 Total
- Thursday Ride – 12.05 Miles Warmup & 30.14 Miles Meetup Ride - 42.19 Total
- Friday: Rest Day
- Saturday: Ride – 100.56 Miles
- Sunday: Rest Day
Weekly Totals:
- Running Miles – 0 Miles
- Running Time – 0 Hours
- Riding Miles – 305.3 Miles
- Riding Time – 15.24 Hours
- Total Miles – 305.3 Miles
- Total Time – 15.24 Hours
Diet Notes:
See below for Weekly ride fueling and then the fueling I did for Saturday’s Century. Even with a low intake of calories and carbs on Saturday felt good on the ride.
Weekly Fueling: Monday through Thursday all were done with a pre-ride coffee with cream
- Monday: 24oz of plain water
- Tuesday AM: 24oz of plain water
- Tuesday PM: 24oz water with 1/2 packet SFuels Race+ (Drank a little before TT and then some on cool down) also had one Maurten 100 before TT
- Wednesday: 24oz water with 1 scoop SFuels Train
- Thursday: 24oz water
Saturday’s Ride Fueling
Pre-Ride Fueling:
- Coffee with Coconut Oil and Butter, Collagen, Heavy Cream, Chocolate Primal Fuel (1 Scoop) (609.3/15) & 1 Scoop SFuels-Life
- 1ea Vespa
- ½ Cup of Oatmeal and Raisins
- 1 Altred (Beetroot Extract)
- Also use the AMPHuman PR Lotion
- Total: 810.9 Cals & 48.6 gr Carbs
Ride Fueling;
- 2ea of 24oz bottle with 2 scoops of SFuels Train each
- 1ea of 24oz of SFuels Race+
- 1 ea 24oz plan water
- 1ea SFuels Bar
- 1 F-Bomb Nut Butter
- 1ea Vespa at 3 hours
- 2 ea Altred (1 at 2 hours and 1 at 4 hours)
- 4 ea S!Caps (2 ea at 2 hours and at 4 hours)
- Totals: 748 Calories – 43 gr Carbs
The Week Ahead:
As talked about at the start of this post the plan for this week is to not run or ride for the entire week and to let my shin heal up completely. Then come back slowly the first week back. Also, based on possibly how I was doing my runs, longer ones but only twice a week, I am going to try shorter ones and may be 3-4 a week to see if it works better. With Boston no longer on the schedule I can back off on longer runs till much later in the year. Bottom line it so get rid of this current issue.
Last Week's Overview #50
Also, check out the whole line of SFuels products: SFuels Life , SFuels-Train and SFuels-Race products. Also, just back after reformulating them are SFuel LIFE Bars. You can also access the new QuickStart Guide.
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