first run in awhile

Two weeks ago (Tuesday 10/15) I fell down the back stairs in my building. I was carrying a big box full of cookies to deliver, skipped a step in the awkward turn, and very quickly landed on my arm and shoulder in the doorway of my laundry room. I remember thinking "my ankle shouldn't bend like that," and "is it going to break?"

I didn't drop one cookie nor did I hurt anything but my ankle. I limped away and delivered my cookies, all the while feeling everything kinda swell up in my shoe. Here's my fat ankle and ice pack (yes it's fat here, I have fairly small ankles normally):







Here's it is after 5 days, bruising in full effect:






But finally after RICEing it up as much as possible, the swelling has pretty much gone down. I figured I would try a short 1/4 mile run on the treadmill to see how it felt, but the weather was so mild I decided to try a run outside. I ended up going a mile, with the only complaint being stiffness in my foot. And lead legs due to complete lower body inaction other than a swim I took on Monday.

Yay.

And then tonight I registered for next May's Soldier Field 10 Mile, to get the $25 discount before it's gone.

And per my previous marathon post, I will "stop not training." I'm not even worried about it.

p.s. I should add that I came home and iced my ankle for awhile and then fell asleep for hours, which is by I'm up at 1-something now. Ugh, I'll pay for this later, no doubt.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

last double digit run before the marathon!

i should be excited, right? ok, i guess i am! earlier this week my BFF got me to sign up for a race for today that was at a navy base, 10 nautical miles, which turns out, is 11.5 miles. since i was supposed to do 12, i figured it'd be cool. and like a MINUTE after i got my confirmation email i remember that saturday night was going to be a late night, getting together with college friends. ugh. so, i got home after 2am, and would need to be up and out the door by 5:15 at the latest in order to make it way up north and onto the last shuttle bus at 6:15. this is a short story: DIDN'T HAPPEN. so i ran my 12 miles along the lakefront after all, getting started at about 9am. here's the mileage breakdown:

Mile 1 10:23

Mile 2 10:33

Mile 3 11:07

Mile 4 10:52

Mile 5 11:24 (stopped for GU)

Mile 6 10:32

Mile 7 10:34

Mile 8 10:57 (had an "oh crap, where's my gatorade bottle" moment

Mile 9 11:40 (stopped for GU)

Mile 10 10:34

Mile 11 10:56

Mile 12 10:27

12 miles/2:09:58 (pace 10:50) there were two casualties from this run. 1st one? lost one of my fuel belt water bottles. 2nd? my shin is hurting a lot. one of my friends sugessted i completely rest. the internet says that, as well as ice use heat, too. think I'm gonna try that. the number one goal of marathon training is to make it to the starting line!!!

Tapering and stuff

So I'm wavering between complete calm and chaos. I had a rough week at work last week, not rough as in staying up all night working on projects kind of rough, which I've been known to have...but just a lot on the agenda, coupled with having to get used to new daylight hours...so I didn't run after my 20 miler until a full week later! And that was on the treadmill, which is really hard getting used to, even though come the dead of winter I'll be raving about her all over again.

My "long" run this weekend was a mere 7 miles, and I swear it seemed to take forever. And my feet which have been very sore after all my long runs were KILLING ME, especially my right heel, er my calcaneus (See picture). I will not make any diagnosis and I will be running on Sunday regardless, and deal with this later. Ready for a break, but only after 26.2 miles.

Hiatus.

So I get compliments on my blog, and what do I do? NOT WRITE FOR TWO WEEKS.

So last time I checked in, I think it was before the kickoff training run for the marathon season, right? Well, I had a fairly terrible run, with my calf hurting the entire time, and I ended up walking half the run. Well maybe not half, but I finished in a little over an hour. Now if we actually ran the 5 miles (which I'm not sure it really was quite 5 miles), that time wouldn't be so horrible...but I digress.

What was supposed to be a celebration of Lou's first run as a pace leader quickly turned into a pity party...party of one. Well, Meg did come and help run me in. In the midst of it all, one of the coaches (I think she's new, or she's new to me...) she was slightly, um, shall we say, slightly all WTH? when I told her my calf had been hurting about 6 weeks. She, Meg, Lou and anyone else with common sense told me GO GET IT CHECKED OUT. After all, Athletico offers free injury screenings. I'd been avoiding them, since I spent 6 weeks in therapy last summer there, and I wasn't ready to have my running season derailed for the second summer in a row. Fast forward to last Thursday, 5 days after said shitty run.

This cute Asian guy was poking and prodding, "does this hurt? how about this? what about here?" Yes to all. "Let me see you walk. Ok, run in place." Diagnosis? "Your muscle is really, really tight. Your muscle structure in your right calf is different than your left. When you said it felt like you couldn't stretch it, no matter how much you stretched? You weren't stretching it." He gave me a battery of stretches for my right leg and even as I tried them right there, I felt a relief I hadn't felt in weeks. Weeks!

He then advised that I do these stretches, along with some strengthening exercises for 3 times a day for about a week, and then ease back into running.

So there we have it. Mind you, I didn't stretch 3 times a day on Friday or Saturday, so I will try my first run again on THIS Saturday. Maybe 3 miles. I hope to be ready to hit the group back with our 5 mile run scheduled for 6/6/09.

I think I'm coming out of my funk induced by bad running/being overworked at work. I will try to write more.

Peace, love, and the lakefront running path,
Lindy