Life has been crazy, crazy, crazy busy this past week, which is why this post is almost a week late. Because most of the exciting stuff was covered in the previous blog, I will sum up this past week and what all went on in my transformation from injured runner to…the Comeback Kid…
On Monday, my physical therapy session was cancelled with Daniel. Which kind of sucked as I had wanted to talk about the ankle pain I was having. But he was running a fever, and I really am a huge germophobe.
So, he wasn’t coming in and I didn’t have to show up, since my therapist was out of the office. Instead, I went to work and sent him an e-mail regarding the situation. He messaged me back on Wednesday and said that he would look at my ankle on Thursday when I came in for my physical therapy session.
That meant a lot of waiting…and a lot of NOT running. Again. Because…honestly…the last thing I wanted to do was aggravate something else and be sidelined more. It seems like a never-ending battle. Anyway…I’m not very good at being patient or waiting.
That being said, when I finally did go in on Thursday, the first thing he did was ask about my ankle and have me take off my shoe so he could look at it, manipulate it, and basically bang the crap out of it to see if it was anything to be concerned about. When that meant I sat there going…no…nope…that doesn’t hurt…that’s weird…hahaha….nope…it’s fine…
Yeah…I think he was wondering if it was all in my head. It’s not. It wasn’t then, and it still isn’t now. But, as he told me, it’s not a stress fracture, because I wouldn’t be able to walk…so it was just some natural aches that come with starting to run again after NOT running for so long. He then had me warm up on a bike and do some dynamic lunges and moves before taking me outside into the cold air in my shorts and all and having me run around the building.
Why was I running around the building? So he could watch my form and see if I was babying my hip by putting more pressure on the other leg (that is the sort of shit that brought me my first (and only) stress fracture in my leg…and the last thing I want is to end up in Bootsie again!)…but he said that my form looked great from every angle he viewed me from. Only thing was my high cadence, but that’s normal for me.
So…he cleared me to do the Anthem 5K that Saturday (as I was up to 3.5 to 4 miles of running every other day), as long as the hip continued to feel good. So, we made one more appointment for a week and a half out…and I was done.
I wrote up a blog on the Anthem “5K”…that you can read if you missed out on that exciting adventure. The best part of that day was that I got to hang out with Melissa and Paul before the race…saw Tammy at the start of the race…and ran comfortably at a 7:29 average for the race. Without pain. At all. And without feeling like I was pushing myself harder than I should. Which says a lot about me maintaining my fitness level even without running in the equation. So YAY! But, I wasn’t supposed to race that one. I was supposed to run it…so…that wasn’t exactly fun to tell my PT over e-mail. He helped a little by putting things into perspective…about thinking long term. So…my mindset is starting to fall that way. I have goals I want to achieve…and being Gimpy McGimpster is not part of those plans.
Into the next week I went. The cold weather gave way to some mild mornings in the 50s. They were rainy…and windy…but I was in my shorts and loving it. I was doing short 4 mile outings and reminding myself to ease it back. This worked better on the windier of mornings (like 40 mph gusts will mess with you regardless!)…hey…I’m a work in progress. I’ll get the hang of it. By the weekend, the bitter cold weather returned. I was NOT happy. It seems like we get gorgeous weather during the week…but on the weekends, it is determined to freeze us out. I wasn’t running as far as…anyone at the training run. I was doing 5 miles as a natural progression to the Rodes 10K this coming Saturday. So…I was definitely the ambassador, and training run attendee doing their own thing.
I’ve been doing a lot of cross-training on gym machines and at spin class. I know…I need to swim more…but swimming is just not fun for me. Or relaxing. So…I am working on that. But, despite the cold temps this week, I’ve gone out on a 5 mile run yesterday morning and felt good. I dialed back the speed and focused a lot more on form. My roommate pointed out that my feet were really pounding the pavement when I’m running these days. Soft feet. That’s what I’m working on now. Another good reason to NOT wear headphones while running. You can tune into your body and that is so important. The run felt good and I finished it feeling tired (hey, I started at 3:30 am), but proud of myself.
Today was my final PT session with Daniel. Yep…officially released! OFF THE CHAIN! I couldn’t be happier. My session today started with a warm-up on the bike before he had me doing my lunge matrix and then running through all the dynamic warm-up stuff he’s assigned to me in the past. And then….he had me doing these giant plyometric jumps before taking off at a run. All that went well…so he had me fill out final paperwork and I was discharged with the understanding that should anything flare back up…I am to call and they’ll fit me in.
And that, my friends, is a good, happy thing!
So…this weekend I am treating the Rodes 10K as a training run…and NOT…I repeat NOT running it hard. I have enlisted my running partner, Matthew, to help keep my pace back. We’ll just have a nice 6 mile conversation. The goal is to finish without any pain. I am really looking forward to this.
Going forward, I get to add some speed and hill work back into my training each week, but nothing monumental. Just some basic strides and a few small climbs. So, that’s progress. I also get to increase my long run by one mile each week leading into my races in April…so that’s also a good thing. I’m feeling good. I’m happy. I’m making my (hopefully final) comeback!
And there it is, friends. Stick with me. I’m sure there is more to this adventure!
The Celiathlete 