Reasons to love RICE

1. Rice is delicious. Especially brown jasmine rice. Have you tried that? It's also really good for you.

There is another type of rice however, which is:

Rest

Ice

Compression

Elevation

It's simple. It's science.

After a super crappy week of runs I was really hoping to start off this week differently. I started out with a lovely swim and then I went for a watch-free 5 miler Tuesday afternoon in shorts and soaked up some of that nice 50 degree weather. I wanted it to feel great, but it didn't. Better than last week? Yes, definitely yes. But I could feel my shin splints making sinister plans for a new attack and that just isn't cool with me. I do, after all, have a race on Saturday that I want to be in tip top shape for. Shin splints and leg fatigue really have no place in my list of goals.

I made the executive decision yesterday to skip the rest of my runs for the week and not run again until Saturday. I always struggle with myself when making those decisions. I HATE missing mileage and I feel like a wimp and a failure when I skip out. But deep down I know I'll be thankful that I rested. As I found out in the fall, resting is always worth it!

So, back to the RICE thing. RICE is good. It's very good. It's especially good when you do all of the parts of RICE. Yes you can rest, but why not improve your chances to heal faster and add the other three elements in? When I got injured in the fall I RICE'd like crazy and let me tell you, I was back in action and still able to run my marathon four weeks after my shin splints were at their worst. And it's all because I swallowed my pride, listened to my body, and took a breather.

All of the cool people wear compression sleeves to work under their jeans

So dear legs,

Take a few days off. I'll see you again on Saturday.

Love, Kristin

How do you deal with injury? Do you struggle getting yourself to take a break? Do you RICE?