I made a pledge to myself at the beginning of this year that I would train to run a 5K race. You haven’t heard from me in a while and perhaps you think I gave up. Far from it.

I started this new year gung ho, and went at it with verve and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I went overboard and I ended up getting a bad set of shin splints. I don’t know if it is my age, my general sense of unfitness or the extreme cold, but it has taken quite a long time for this thing to heal.Alas, I did not give up my fitness regimen, despite the setback. I had to regroup and figure out what I could do while my legs had time to heal.

I have gone to the gym on average three times a week, where I did cardio activity on the eliptical or weight training. Additionally, even on days that I didn’t go to the gym, I did yoga, or stretching or other core exercises.

Earlier this week I had a heavy duty lower body workout. The theory is if my legs are stronger, they will be less prone to injury.

I’ve also been stretching religiously, and it really helps.

So I’m about ready to begin my training again. I already tested the waters a few days ago, walking on the treadmill for 10 minutes. My shins did feel it, but I was able to recover.

I plan to go to the gym on Sunday morning and continue to workout. Only this Sunday, I will walk part of the way, which will be 1.5 miles. I will try to do a speed walk depending on how my shins are feeling and if they begin to hurt, I will slow it down.

I don’t want to over do it this time. So I’m going to increase my mileage walking before I begin running again. And most importantly, I have to get proper running shoes. Since I’m going on vacation in a little longer than a week from now, I’ll have to take care of that when I return.

So I hope you’ll be looking out for more updates in the very near future.