Next Steps

Tom asked a good question in yesterday's comments:

Your shins will recover.

What will you do to prevent them from returning?

Fair warning: I am now going to sound a bit like a politician.

I am aware of the dire problem with my shins, and I have a three-part solution to combat this issue:

1. Get checked out
Next Tuesday, I have an appointment with a local podiatrist/sports doc to take a look at things and see what sort of solutions he might have for orthotics, or whatever else he may suggest. I don't know... that's why he's the doctor.

2. New shoes
After getting checked out, I am going to support my local running store and have them take a look at my running and see what sort of suggestions they might have for new shoes. It's a very good shop, and they have a treadmill in the shop for just this sort of thing. Honestly, I thought my shoes were good enough, but I got them at Sports Authority, so who can really tell. Again... it's all about getting the experts to help me out.

3. Change my running
One of the things I noticed when my shins first started hurting is that I always ran on the same side of the street -- running with my left leg (the one that hurts) towards the outside of the street, where it would get more pounding because of the crowning on the street. I'm definitely going to at least change that up regularly, along with taking some of Chuck's advice and avoiding road running for a while -- treadmills are boring, but they work. Plus, I have nice, soft beach sand here that I can run on also. I'm not sure that would help, but it sure is purty.

I am positive that with the implementation of this plan, I can eliminate the troubles that have plagued my running for these several weeks, so I can focus on the more pressing issue at hand -- that of getting myself ready to run 26.2 miles in less than six months.

Vote Bill.