Set(back)-ually Frustrated

Can I get a big "Uggghh" please?

After having such a great run on Saturday, faithfully sticking to the ArcTrainer on Sunday and resting on Monday, Coach Jack surprised me yesterday by clearing me to run with the team at our track workout last night. I of course agreed to do a remedial workout, but any running was enough to bring a smile to my face.

I showed up at the Tufts track and was greeted by my teammates who were equally as glad to see me as I was them. After I got in a couple of warm-up laps to loosen up the legs, Jack gave us the "ready, set, GO!" and we were off. I stuck with Shifter, who was also coming off an injury, knowing that as long as I had someone to set and police the pace, that I wouldn't be tempted to hammer it. After about a mile, my left shin started flaring up, but I thought it might work itself out, so I kept on going. A couple laps later, Jack yells over "Brenda, are you limping?" Crap. Yeah, I guess I am, Jack.

I don't know what changed between Saturday and Tuesday, but I was pretty disappointed to feel that too-familiar nag in my leg, and I woefully retreated to the elliptical machine just off to the side of the track and finished my workout from there. It was hard to watch my teammates whizzing around the track with one another while I was moving in place. It was even harder to think that I might have set my injury back and bought myself even longer on the ArcTrainer before I'm off for good. Even the delicious cold beer and greasy food at Red Bones afterwards wasn't enough to fix my broken spirit that night.

This morning, my legs hurt. I can't pretend they don't. As I sit here writing this, they're in a bucket of ice water and I'm eyeing the bottle of ibuprofen. And that, dear reader, is what you get when you "let the tiger out of the cage" too soon, as Jack said once. So if there's anything you take away from reading this, aside from the fact that 2009 isn't exactly off to a great start for me, it's not to rush back from an injury too fast, no matter how much the replacement workouts suck.