How much is too much?

In the past several weeks, I've noticed a nagging shin pain. Sort of the pain like you get with shin splints. At least, that's what I think it is. And, being the typical Type A, obsessive compulsive freak that I am, I have not stopped running. Oh no, if I skip a run work out, that will ruin my plans and I will lose all my fitness, right? No, wrong. The telltale sign for me this week was when I stopped during a run to take a quick break. Starting back up, the shin was screaming with pain and I had to sort of hobble/limp to get started. Once I'm running again, the pain is tolerable.

But I know that I'll never be able to do my Ironman if I don't nip this in the bud. Well, the shin has been bothering me for over 4 weeks now, can I still call this "nipping it in the bud?" Anyways, after that horrible run, I've been good to my shin. For the past several days, this ice pack has been my friend. 15 minutes on, 15 minutes off, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is getting boring already and I don't feel like it's any better. How do I know if it's any better? I don't know, I'd have to run on it, but then I fear I will undo all the "good" I've done in the past few days trying to get rid of the little annoyance. But then how much longer do I have to ice and stay off it?

I thoroughly believe that as athletes, our minds play tricks on us. So if we skip a workout or take an unplanned day off, we start to feel guilty or worse...GETTING SLOWER! And, sure, I've read all the stuff about you gotta recover to get stronger and all that stuff, but when I have an unplanned day off, it's like the time creeps by so slowly. That's the same day when you see a dozen different runners throughout the day, out on their workout. Or the same day when you get a call from a friend who says they just had the most amazing, tough, awesome workout. We start thinking, oh man, what am I doing? I'm such a slacker. I haven't worked out in ages (it's been about 14 hours), I'm losing everything I've worked for! It's only AFTER that period of rest or inactivity is over and you're back in the daily grind that you can look back and say, "gee, I only missed a couple days, no big deal." But at the time, it feels like an eternity. Why does the mind work that way?

Time to go get the ice pack. :(