Valen-birthday Weekend and New Workout Gear

I declared this weekend to be my birthday weekend since 1. I don't usually celebrate my weekend in such an obnoxious way and 2. I turned the big 3-0. I received a beautiful bouquet of white roses on Valentine's morning. I plan on keeping them alive for as long as possible. We then went to the movies and dinner Saturday and Sunday. We're also going out tonight since today is my actual birthday. We already discussed what we're going to eat since we've overindulged a bit this weekend. We've had Vietnamese and Indian. We'll stick to (steamed) seafood today.

I've had terrible shin splints the last couple of weeks. I think I overdid it when I exercised 4 days in a row and jogged one extra minute. Yes, one measly minute may have sent me into a world of pain. I now realize shin splints are a big part of the reason I've stopped working out in the past. In the past, one session with this pain would have me give up. At the suggestion of a group member, we went to pick up a new pair of sneakers for me. I'm very picky when it comes to sneakers. They all look like abominations to me. I grab the least tacky pair and went to look around the store. As I passed by the sales rack, I saw the beautiful pair you see to the right. As you can see, I have a very "clean" aesthetic. They happened to have one pair in my size! I then saw another pair out of the corner of my eye, exactly in my size, and snatched those up as well. They were half off so I figure I can have a back up or a pair to wear out and about. I also bought a pair of gel insoles. I tried them out today and they helped a lot with my heel pain. These sneakers are extremely comfortable. Oh and the sneakers have my birth year on them. It was meant to be!

I planned on buying cloth bandages to wrap my shins/calves to help reduce the shin pain during workouts. I found these shin splint support wraps. They're more than I wanted to pay but they seem like they'll last a long time and they're a breeze to put on. They're a little too tight but I hope they'll stretch out. I wore them today and the pain wasn't as extreme as usual. I feel pretty bad because I can't jog right now. I'm trying to keep up with my usual MPH (3.5) but the pain is pretty bad. Rest is just about the only way to heal but I just can't. I'm going to continue to exercise but may split my cardio between the treadmill and the elliptical (ugh.) My husband asked to pay for it all which really made my day. Not only because he paid, but because I received gifts that reinforce my goal of getting fit!