….I just haven’t been doing anything all that interesting!

I have been laid up lately with a niggling pain in my right shin on the lower medial side. I narrowed the possible injury list to either a stress fracture, shin splints, or the most likely: A slight bout of tendonitis.

As a result, I haven’t been running as much as I would like, but I have been hitting the gym for light cardio workouts and a LOAD of strength training. This past Saturday was SO nice, clear skies and temps in the high 60’s…. I had to get out for a run. I donned some shorts, kicked off my shoes and hit the road.

I was mindful of my right leg, but I was trying not to baby it and risk causing injury to my opposite leg. After the first km, everything felt fine, so I just kept on running, and at 5k, I was feeling really good – the apprehension was gone, as well as 80% of the pain. When I hit my 11th kilometer, I decided I was pressing my luck a bit too much, and headed back to home, ending my first (loggable) run of the new year at 11.5km. ..and of course I found a mud pit to run through…it was fate!

I spent the rest of the day with my shin tender, but that only slowed me a bit when we took the Thing’s Three out for a birthday roller-skating trip!

I did some research into tendonitis treatment, and I decided to try out a Strassburg Sock and an Ibuprofen Regiment…2 days in and I am feeling MUCH MUCH better. I have decided to do as little as possible this week, and resume training next Monday. This schedule is cutting into my training for the SARR Endurathon Half-Marathon on Jan 26th, but with this injury, I would prefer to run IN IT and FINISH over not being able to even run it due to injury…besides, a mere 8 Days after that, I will be headed back out to the Natural Bridge Caverns to run the World’s only Half-Marathon that STARTS IN A FREAKING CAVE!…how awesome is that.

The rest of the year is looking pretty easy compared to my 2012 race schedule, with only 2-3 more races planned for the year:

• Prickly Pear 50k, San Antonio, March
• Tough Mudder, Austin, April

The final race that I am considering this year is going to be a doozy…so I won’t sign up for anymore until I know whether or not I am going to compete in the Ultracentric 72 hour “Gold Rush” Ultra… 72 hours around a loop seems like it could be just a bit on the boring side…but if I can do the 72 hours there without dying…I will hit Leadville in 2014 (depending on budget)

Congrats to Lorrraine Heyes for winning her very own pair of Muddy J “J”uaraches (serial# W2013) from the Barefoot Inclined 2013 Super-Giveaway! They shipped on Monday and should be finding their way onto your feet today or tomorrow! (I just checked, they’re out for delivery as I am writing this post!)

That’s all I have for now…I might post some recipes I came up with recently in the near future!

Stay Muddy My Friends!