A Right Shin-annigan :o(

I still have shin splints. It's nothing worse than that, and according to this article from Peak Performance, I have a moderately severe dose of this common running injury and should be reducing my mileage and doing exercises to strengthen my ankle dorsiflexors. Bah! Why couldn't the cure involve eating raspberry cheesecake rather than doing boring exercises?

The article also recommends NSAIDs. I know runners who don't get out of bed without taking ibuprofen. I never normally take NSAIDs for anything other than period pain. But I'm going to take 1g of nabumetone daily for the next week to see whether it makes a difference.

Last week, I did have quite a drastic cutback week ...

Total mileage: 35.5 miles
Profile: 82.5% steady road running, average pace 9.37mm
3.5% running with Beth (12), average pace 10.42mm
14% Centurion Grand Prix 5-mile race, average pace 8.14mm
Longest run: 9.2 miles at 9.51mm
Niggles: Just my right shin, in case I haven't mentioned it already.
Sofa-spud days: Saturday

My legs were clearly hungover from the weekend, as demonstrated by the slower average pace (though it hasn't dropped below my target training pace) and, especially, by my performance at the club race. The Centurion Grand Prix 5-mile race is run once a month for six months, and this month's was the first in the current series. This time last year, I ran it in 36:46 and got an age category prize. On Sunday, I took 41:11 over it (a PW for the course if you exclude the time I ran it with a dose of gastroenteritis) despite being at a good racing weight and having some decent mileage behind me. There was no power in my quads or hamstrings.

Considering how close I came to not starting at all because my shin was painful, I'm happy enough with that result.

This week's mileage will be higher, but the pace will be relatively sedate because I donated blood yesterday afternoon. I was able to run a few hours later, but every little updulate exposed the fact that I'd lost a chunk of my oxygen-carrying capacity. Nothing a few steak butties won't put right :o)