It's been said before, but its worth saying again (mostly for my own benefit) -- you are only as good as your form. When that suffers and falls apart, you aren't far behind. And neither is injury.
I started off very fast tonight -- somewhere in the 7:20 range, and I must say my form was very good. I was lifting my feet with my knees (not toeing off) and taking short quick steps. My back was straight and tall and my arms swung parallel to each other. At or about the end of my second mile, things started to turn sour.
For some reason my calves got really sore -- maybe I wasn't relaxing enough -- and so I started slipping. Instead of landing on my ball I started to inch back little by little. Midfoot. Middle Midfoot. Lower Midfoot. I stopped there fortunately, but I could already feel the ill effects. My left knee started feeling a little funny (underneath that boney protrusion on the side, which I believe is called the the lateral collateral ligament) and out of sorts. No pain, but I knew it was on its way. Then my left shin started getting a lactic acid build up.
If I didn't know better I might have said the soreness (hopefully that's what it was) was the beginnings of shin splits. But only on my left leg. Apparently I have a running asymmetry. I know, it's weird.
Lesson learned. Form, form, form. And more form. Time and speed are nothing if you are injured. Distance is nothing if you can't get out there and run the next day.
My rookie speed is around 8 minutes a mile, and will be for the next couple of weeks. I need to be ok with that. No comas ansias.
4/27/2011 Update: The good news is that I definitely don't have shin splints, but I will need to foam roll and stretch my knees/lateral collateral ligament/IT band a little more frequently and intensely than I am doing now. Thankfully I'm only feeling just a little residual discomfort in my left knee this morning. Right foot pads are nice and tender though.
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