Weekly Report from the Injury Bench.

Don't tell anyone I said this, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the past week.

Accepting that my shin would recover a lot more quickly if I stopped running was disappointing, but also quite liberating. I was giving myself permission to stop doing an activity which hurt and replace it with activities that didn't hurt. I stopped clinging hopefully to advice to "reduce mileage", and took note of Matt Fitzgerald's words in Brain Training for Runners:

Take it from one who learned the lesson in the hardest way possible. You will come out ahead in the long run (so to speak) if you adopt a zero tolerance policy towards injury pain ... and react to it with a hair trigger by ceasing your running as soon as the pain reaches red-flag level and not running again until you can do so without pain.

And later in the same chapter:

In the meantime, stay fit by replacing your running workouts with similar workouts in a nonimpact aerobic activity such as bicycling or deep-water running that you can do pain-free. Doing so will not only keep you fit while your injury heals and you correct its causes, but it will also greatly reduce the temptation to resume running too quickly.

I've had to fit my cross-training around a busy week at work, and think I've done not too badly.

Walking (with occasional little experimental runs): 33.04 miles, average pace 13.59mm.
Cycling: 95.07 miles.
Swimming: 3960m
Long Run Substitute: 70.8-mile bike ride with Leon, to Stratford and back along minor roads.
Niggles: Low back DOMS after my first bike ride in months. Must learn to relax in the saddle!
Sofa-spud days: None.

What I'm logging as "walking" has been done solely as training, unladen, wearing running-shoes, and concentrating on technique. I've probably walked almost as far again just going to work and to the pool and doing my housecalls. Being able to walk quickly without aggravating my shin has undoubtedly made cross-training more accessible.

All of my cross-training, give or take some uphill efforts on the bike, has been aerobic, and my body appears to have slipped happily into a routine of churning out little Krebs cycles instead of having to cope with unpredictable and sometimes intense demands for glycogen synthesis and breakdown. It feels as if it's ticking over very smoothly indeed :o)

My shin is definitely a great deal quieter than it was a week ago, but it wasn't entirely painfree when I tested it out with some very gentle running during my walk tonight so I'm anticipating at least another week on the bench.