No pain no gain

Today was the first time I attempted to run in some time.  The plan was a 30 minute run - drive to the gym, park, and run, returning back to the gym for weightlifting.

I was running quite often a few months ago with Emily but I began to feel some pain so I stopped to lick my wounds.  During that period I took to riding the stationary bike and had no pain doing that so I took to riding.  Today I tried running again and got about 1.5 miles out before feeling pain, so I took it down a noch by alternating between walking and running.  I will say that knowing that in a handful of months I'll have to bump up my total distance run today by about 1700% gave me some motivation to keep trying.  So, instead of giving up and walking the entire way back to the gym, I took little breaks and did a half way decent job of running when I could.

After talking about the pain I was feeling with Emily my fears have been relieved - I thought I was having knee pain ("runner's knee") but I think now it's shin splints which are much easier to treat.  Emily used to have shin splints but after stretching and strenghtening, icing and heating her's are pretty much behind her and I know mine will be, too.  I know I'll be fine.