The pain

I almost gave up today. Gave up running entirely. After my Saturday run I continued to have pretty severe shin pain. My legs were tight so I kept stretching and started doing my PT again. My coach recommended cutting down to three runs a week plus cross training with low impact cardio to allow my legs to heal.

Nevertheless, when I started to run on Monday I felt a painful twinge in my lower left leg, and then after a few minutes it loosened up to a bearable dull pain. Yesterday, I had a hard time going down and up stairs. My legs, particularly my inside lower legs, were very tight. They felt a little better today so I assumed that once I started running I would be ok. But I wasn't.

I managed to do about 3.5 miles on the downtown bike trail. It was a great day for a run - cool and breezy. Yet I was in so much pain that I started thinking about stopping running altogether. Forever. I can't do a marathon like this. I just can't.

My coach recommended stretching and more cross training. Doesn't look like I'll be doing a long run this weekend. I'm going out of town so I suppose it's no big deal. Maybe I've just been working too hard and need to cut back on some things.

I'll miss the first week of my summer MIT session. They've made some changes, according to an email I received this week. These two items, in particular, caught my eye:

• We have Asics on-board as a sponsor, which will allow us to give deep discounts on America's number 1 brand of running specialty gear at Fleet Feet. Other major manufacturers will also be featured in the discount program.
• We have agreed to have Panera host the Saturday workouts – which means free bagels for all of you after each Saturday workout.

I haven't decided to quit altogether. Yet. I've been here before. I can overcome it. I have to. Otherwise I just have to buy a decent bike. And decent bikes cost a lot more than running shoes!