doctors, slings, and accomplishment

Total Distance So Far: 133.9 miles

I've got a back log of information to lay out... so sorry for the long blog. Let's get started.

On Monday, July 16 I went to the track session, and continued to do the hill ascents with a lap around the track before trucking up the hill each time... walking downhill, no rest between laps. Since I am still nursing a sport injury from over-use, I did 4 laps again instead of the 6 my teammates were doing.

Stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.26 miles TIME: 10:38 minutes PACE: 8:26 minute/mile

Laps...
(1) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22
(2) DISTANCE: 0.46 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 9:20
(3) DISTANCE: 0.51 miles TIME: 4:17 minutes PACE: 8:25
(4) DISTANCE: 0.45 miles TIME: 4:11 minutes PACE: 9:22

Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.77 miles TIME: 10:01 minutes PACE: 13:02

It was a pretty humid day, and I was sweating buckets. I opted to walk the second 5 minutes of my cool-down, which accounts for the slow pace.

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Wednesday I went to see the orthopedic specialist. I was given a large padded plastic contraption to strap to my foot every night when I sleep to stretch my foot at a greater than 90 degree angle. The doc also told me to pick up a pair of good insoles from a sporting good store (he recommended Spenco Polysorbs).

The doctor emphasized my need to stretch my achilles tendon out regularly. That the lack of flexibility on the back of my leg was what caused this condition. I have to admit, I am pretty stiff and inflexible right now. Currently if I stand straight-legged and try to touch the floor, I'm about 3 inches shy of reaching the ground. This is the least flexible I think I've ever been.

The doctor also suggested I do low and no impact activities whenever I can. Replacing the timed run with the same time on an elliptical, stuff like that. I'll see what I can do.

When he first came in and suggested "no running for 2 months" that's when I originally panicked, and realized I needed to take all his suggestions very seriously.

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Due to an extremely busy work schedule and a suggestion to take about 2-3 weeks off of training atleast from the Doctor, I didn't do any of my training for the remainder of the week. I did, however, email coach joe the information from the doctor. I was asking for training schedule recommendations. Joe got back to me and said all the week-day training stuff can be substituted for other things with low to no impact, but he'd still like me to participate in the group runs every saturday. Those were the most important thing and there was no substitute for them.

I was hesitant, but planned on participating.

In the mean time I started wearing the nighttime sling. I quickly learned it's actually more like a medieval torture device. The position it holds your foot in is neither natural nor comfortable. Inevitably I wake up in the middle of the night with my foot in pain, and rip the sling off. The foot, nonetheless, seems to be getting better. My morning symptoms have really reduced. It's amazing the difference the sling is making! I'm guessing one night in the future I'll be able to wear the sling all night long, but right now it's not happening.

Oh yes, and I got the polysorb insoles. The fancy ones for $35. They seem to really help too. I'm optimistic finally!

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Saturday July 21
We met up at Willamette Park for the TNT group run at 7:30am. We're running 12 miles. (btw, Val did her 12 miles on Friday and didn't come to this run). The weather was overcast and humid, around 70 degrees or so.

The course was north from the park along the Willamette Greenway Trail to the Hawthorne Bridge. Over the bridge, and then south on the Springwater Corridor to the Sellwood bridge. Over that bridge and then north on the Greenway Trail again back to the park. At this point we'll have gone 8.3 miles. After that is a 2 mile out and back north again along the Greenway Trail to complete the 12 miles. Only, the course laid out was actually more like 13.3 miles. A half-marathon!

I also have to mention, this course is BEAUTIFUL! The scenery of the Willamette River is quite wonderful, and I was very much enjoying the wild flowers, the great blue herons, and the charmingly situated houses you can see along this course.

I intentionally decided to go slow as molasses so that I could increase my chances of making it through the run. I also opted to spend 30 seconds or less at the aid stations, just long enough to down 8oz of Gleukos sports drink and grab a handful of gummi bears. I didn't want to let my body cool down too much (another theory of mine as to why my previous 2 weekends failed).

It WAS NOT easy. Every step past 6 miles meant that I had healed significantly since last week. Hell, every step past 8 miles was a new record for me. I honestly thought I was doomed at about 9 miles when my GOOD knee started to have problems. Going over the Sellwood bridge was interesting. It's alot steeper than I realized. So coming down off of it there was a decent slope. I was babying my bad left leg, so was absorbing all my downward momentum with my right leg. Approx 1 mile later the right knee started aching... so I'm pretty sure it was my careless use of my good leg to help me down off the bridge. I should have just walked down the bridge in hindsight. blah.

At 9 miles my right knee was hurting and starting to stiffen up... to the point I was wondering if I should just call it good, but I REALLY wanted to go the full 12, so I did something weird. I started running a different way. To me, with slightly numbed legs and sore muscles, it felt like I was leaning forward, keeping my legs straight and kinda behind me, and wiggling my hips up and down in a shimmy... and somehow I was propelled forward! And... it didn't hurt. And... I couldn't seem to do this any slower than a 12 minute mile pace. I was forced to take these teeny tiny steps, and I realized I probably looked like those experienced marathon women that I've noticed at practice who run with tiny steps and not bending their knees much.

So, when I thought at 9 miles I might have to give up, I started running this different way, and I was just propelled the final 3 miles at a faster speed than I even crossed the Sellwood bridge at!! It was amazing.

and... I DID IT!!!

I had my garmin, so as soon as it read 12 miles, I stopped running and started walking.

Mind you, my right knee just stayed very unhappy the rest of the day. But it feels much better today. I think it'll heal. I just need to be careful on downhills.

Stats...
DISTANCE: 12.09 miles TIME: 2:23:00 minutes PACE: 11:50 minute/mile

After the run we had our honored teammate brunch, but I'll blog about that in a seperate blog.
Anyways, looks like I'm back on track! Yay!