On The Road Again

I am back up and running! I went to see the doctor last week on Friday and he told me he thinks I am still suffering from a sprain of the same tendons and muscles that surround the bone I broke in November. He fitted me with a handful of cuboid pads and sent me on my way free to run, ice and ibuprofen with thoughtful abandon. He also told me that if it was still painful to stop running and come back. I can see how this may seem irritating to some but to me this is evidenced based medicine. This is beautiful. He did a complete foot exam and did not radiate me again. He asked good questions and came up with a very reasonable possible solution. I was, of course frightened that it would not be so simple but after three runs and no pain (while running) I think we may have found ourselves a solution. I am over the moon. I have a renewed desire to run and feel like I want to take on the challenge of another full marathon sooner rather than later. I am ready. I think I can kill my last time and feel a lot better while doing it. I am aiming for Seattle in November. It will be one year from my stumble and break and more than ten years since my first marathon. Seattle is hilly and has its sucky bits but that is just how it goes. Portland is the same way. We have Katie and John in Seattle so it is a reasonable place to go and stay and make a weekend out of it. I am getting all fired up just thinking about it. I will say more about my training plans and life in general as we go along and particularly after I make it through these next two weeks of the term. People keep asking about the wedding planning and I am going nowhere fast with all of that so I have to get back in gear there too. One exhausted step at a time right now. I CAN do this. I think I can I think I can...I will! Ok, off to hit the books...Toxicology papers don't write themselves.

Fitness Day 85
Total weight loss 14lbs
Pant size 14
Yesterday ran 4.5mi at a 9min 45sec pace. Today is a strength training/rest day

WTF?!

I broke my foot in November running the Seattle Half Marathon. I tripped off a curb and felt something icky but kept running...8 more miles...I have been a "big" runner my whole running career and am used to having aches and pains and pushing through them one way or another. I didn't think anything serious was wrong. WRONG! Three days later I was unable to walk at all. I couldn't stand without feeling dizzy, breaking into a sweat and feeling 8/10 pain (10/10 was my IUD). I went to student health and they told me they didn't think it was broken and that I should "stretch it out. GO for a run" I was pretty sure she was full of crap so I came to my hospital and had an x-ray B-R-O-K-E-N! I spent 8 weeks in boot, crutch, post-op shoe hell and the whole time I was swimming and doing water aerobics, eventually I went to the eliptical machine. I was SO good! I did everything the doc told me to and not a thing more. I started working out a little harder with more weight bearing activity about 4 weeks ago, got totally swamped in school and then got SICK. Four days ago I started running again. We went to the woods and ran on the trail. It was Rad! The next day I went running in the city from the hospital after work. My foot hurt. It felt bruised and achy and it only got worse the farther I ran. By the time I got home I didn't want to be standing on it anymore. Ice offered little help and Ibuprofen didn't seem to be cutting the mustard either. I have worked the last two nights and my foot is on fire! I feel like someone ran it over with a truck. I am calling the MD tomorrow morning. I am freaking out inside. What if I broke it again? What if I have a stress fracture?! What if I have to be on crutches again?! WHAT THE FUCK AM I GONNA DO?! I AM GOING TO LOSE MY FRIGGEN MIND!!!
I called my mom hoping she would be able to say SOMETHING, ANYTHING to make me feel better about my pain and my frustration. Nope. Even translating mom speak and her being as understanding and maternal as possible I don't feel better. She gave me a lecture about over doing it and told me to back off and take it easy...blah.. blah...blah. I didn't want to hear that. Anyway, I have decided to call the doctor in the morning. I just want it to be over. I want to go in and have him tell me there is no break, that it is just tissue "pisseed off-ness", maybe hook a girl up with some orthotics and tell me that running is the best medicine. The weather is getting nice, I am getting spring fever and I am NOT going to be a happy girl if I get the no-go on the running. I will keep posted after the phone conversation tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

Off with her boot! (Fitness Mission day 4)

It's official! I have been released to weight bearing activity as of this morning. It has been 3 weeks since I broke my foot running in the Seattle Half Marathon and it was 21 LONG days. I am a fairly active lady and get a lot of joy out of living in an area where I can walk to the store and take my dogs to the park or on a hike no matter the weather. The last three weeks have been devoid of those walks. I haven't even been able to grocery shop as crutches inhibit basket carrying or cart pushing. Needless to say much of my holiday shopping has been via Amazon.com. It has been hard to be unable to run or even carry a cup of coffee from the kitchen to the couch. I dislike having to ask for help and have hated being unable to "nest" now that I am done with the semester and finally able to do some of the settling into the house. However, things are different now. I can walk. The doctor put me in a walking shoe with a "cuboid pad" (see the above picture). It pushes up on the broken bone and prevents it from flexing under the weight of walking. The upside is having my independence back...the down side is how much it hurts to walk on it. The doc warned me that it will be sore for a while as there is still swelling and bone healing going on but it still hurts....Waah waah waah...I know.

I think I will tackle our bedroom tonight. There are just a lot of little things that I want moved here or there and tiny pieces I want picked up, especially before my mother comes to see the house. Moving around on the crutches was just such an effort that I have forgone any major projects until now. I am excited to get started. Yay Holiday Break!

I have been doing my 40min of pilates and hour of aqua-jogging daily...this is day 4. Things have been going well. I am feeling like I am sleeping better, eating better, feeling more positive and relaxed. All the good things that endorphins bring. I am making a huge effort to be as "well behaved" as possible (read not eating cheese as a cure for boredom or as a substitute for a meal) so that I may eat whatever I want for Christmas. I was out to meet a friend for coffee this afternoon and realized how hard it is to find food that is not either a bacon and melted cheese sammy or a dry wrap with hummus and cucumber. I settled today, for half of a tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwich. It was good but somehow it still seemed against my efforts to eliminate cheese as a food group. Oh well, there will be more pilates tonight to make up for the popcorn I sooooo want to eat. Ahhh I just had a thought that now that I can bear weight on my foot I can do workouts that have me standing up. Sweet!

My mother arrives in 4 days. I am getting excited for her visit. I think we will have a lot of fun. I want to take her to see some of the beautiful scenery. I also intend to drag her to the pool. My thoughts about mothers, daughters and the body issues in between will have to wait for another day. In the mean time I will say that I am happy she will have some time to meet the Hubb's folks. I am under no illusions that just because Hubbs and I are in love, our families will be BFFs. I am hoping that they will see the common ground they share of loving their kiddos and be able to have some sort of family relationship. You know what they say....You don't choose your family. I think the same is largely true of in-laws too. Though, I must admit that if given the option I likely would have chosen my future in-laws. They are rad and I am lucky indeed.


My mom and I at the coast on her last visit


The future-in-laws


Anyway, this post was not suposed to be about how much I love my family and family to be....it was supposed to be a hip hip hooray for the end of the crutches and the begining of the foot rehab.

Day 4
40min Pilates AM
35min Pool AM
40min strength training workout PM