It has now been over 3 weeks since I last ran. I was going to try to run last Wednesday because that would have been 2 weeks since I saw the doctor, but my ankle was feeling sore so I didn't.
It had been feeling so much better so I had decided to go for a bike ride the Saturday before which I thought would be totally fine, but my I guess not. I realized afterwards that riding hard for 20 miles after only ridding my bike 2 or 3 times in the last year would not really be considered "babying" my foot! It's hard to keep babying it when it feels good though!
It's so hard to know what I can do and when I should try to do things again, and I've just felt so frail and fragile these last few weeks.
I finally committed to pulling out of the Big Cottonwood Marathon and sent in my withdrawal. The awesome thing is that they gave me my money back! Not many races will do that so I've already had a great experience with this race even without getting to run it. They also had a givaway for free running assessments with one of their sponsers, and I won one! So I will definitly be using that to help figure out this problem with my foot and I will definitely keep my sights on this marathon for the future!
It was really sad to withdraw, but at the same time it was also a huge relief and I no longer feel like I'm in a rush to get better and I can just not worry about running and do other things.
I have been really good about working out for the past couple weeks! I went aqua jogging 5 times for about an hour+ each, and swimming 3 times, plus some pilates and ballet (which also didn't feel great on my poor Achilles on Tuesday...) so I'm happy about that.
I've made a new goal to make it to masters swimming at least 3 times a week, and I've done 3 in a row (Wednesday, Friday and today where I covered 2700 yards!) so I feel really good about it, and I can really feel the habit starting to set in. It also helps me not feel too sad about not running, and I feel strong again! Ok, I'm not really fast, especially compared to the 3 guys next to me this morning, but I still feel strong and enjoy doing it.
I am going to start back up running this week. My food and ankle feel really good, and I'm anxious to start training for Ragnar which is in 12 weeks! I promise to start back slow and keep doing other things too. I just need to remember that if I'm not doing enough cross training, I get inured! I should know this by now.
Monday, August 26, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Aqua Jogging
Hello! I did something new this week! I went aqua jogging!
I feel like I'm going crazy with all the inactivity I've had lately, even though I know it is helping my foot a LOT! It feels much better! I did want to do something so I decided to try aqua jogging.
On Wednesday, I looked up a few youtube videos on how to do it and decided it would probably be the best thing for me to do right now.
Here's a good one.
But then I couldn't get myself to get up and go by myself on Thursday so I asked around to see if anyone would go with me on Friday. I was so lucky to have 2 friends agree to try it out with me!
At first we were doing it back and forth in the deep end. Then everyone left so we had room to actually just do it in a circle and that was a lot easier because it's kind of distruptive to have to start again after turning around.
I don't know if I was doing a fast enough turn over because it didn't feel like my heart-rate was very high. It did feel like a nice workout. Going into it, I thought we would be doing good to get half an hour in, but we ended up aqua jogging for almost an hour and a half! It was really fun because we were able to just chat the whole time so the time just flew by.
It didn't hurt my foot/ankle at all to do this. The only negative thing I felt was my elbow started to hurt. Maybe from holding it in one position for too long?
The next day I DID feel it in my quads so I know it did something! I will probably do it a few more times next week before trying to run on the road again.
I feel like I'm going crazy with all the inactivity I've had lately, even though I know it is helping my foot a LOT! It feels much better! I did want to do something so I decided to try aqua jogging.
On Wednesday, I looked up a few youtube videos on how to do it and decided it would probably be the best thing for me to do right now.
Here's a good one.
But then I couldn't get myself to get up and go by myself on Thursday so I asked around to see if anyone would go with me on Friday. I was so lucky to have 2 friends agree to try it out with me!
At first we were doing it back and forth in the deep end. Then everyone left so we had room to actually just do it in a circle and that was a lot easier because it's kind of distruptive to have to start again after turning around.
I don't know if I was doing a fast enough turn over because it didn't feel like my heart-rate was very high. It did feel like a nice workout. Going into it, I thought we would be doing good to get half an hour in, but we ended up aqua jogging for almost an hour and a half! It was really fun because we were able to just chat the whole time so the time just flew by.
It didn't hurt my foot/ankle at all to do this. The only negative thing I felt was my elbow started to hurt. Maybe from holding it in one position for too long?
The next day I DID feel it in my quads so I know it did something! I will probably do it a few more times next week before trying to run on the road again.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Doctor's Orders
I went to the foot doctor yesterday to get my foot checked out. It was feeling much better than the past few days so I was really hopeful that it wouldn't be anything too serious. It also made it hard to tell him exactly where it hurt. Dang it! :)
He took an x-ray and it looked really good, no fractures in sight. Yay! So it's just the "soft tissue" that is injured which is good, but he said something like that can take from 2 up to 8 weeks to heal! I don't think that will be the case for me since it's not a serious tear in the tendon or anything. The little tendons on the side of my foot have just been abused a little bit and need some TLC.
The doctor asked me to baby my foot for 2 more weeks, then I can try running again if it's not hurting. I said, "So, no marathon in 6 weeks?" and he said it might still be a possibilty! We just have to see what happens. I'm thinking it might be wise not to do it either way just because all that downhill will be a lot of stress on my feet! Maybe I'll do the SoJo Marathon again in October instead. The good thing is that I have until September 7th to withdraw my registration for the Big Cottonwood Marathon so it's not like I'm going to lose the money or anything. That helps a lot! But I'm trying not to obsess about it too much right now while I'm just sitting around all day...
In the mean time, I will take the gondola up the mountain instead of running, and enjoy spending time with my sweet children and letting them take care of me. Here's some photos from the last few days:
George is getting old enough to practically fend for himself now. He figured out how to open pistachios yesterday!
Tomorrow I'm going to try aqua jogging so that should be interesting! I'll keep you posted about how that goes.
He took an x-ray and it looked really good, no fractures in sight. Yay! So it's just the "soft tissue" that is injured which is good, but he said something like that can take from 2 up to 8 weeks to heal! I don't think that will be the case for me since it's not a serious tear in the tendon or anything. The little tendons on the side of my foot have just been abused a little bit and need some TLC.
The doctor asked me to baby my foot for 2 more weeks, then I can try running again if it's not hurting. I said, "So, no marathon in 6 weeks?" and he said it might still be a possibilty! We just have to see what happens. I'm thinking it might be wise not to do it either way just because all that downhill will be a lot of stress on my feet! Maybe I'll do the SoJo Marathon again in October instead. The good thing is that I have until September 7th to withdraw my registration for the Big Cottonwood Marathon so it's not like I'm going to lose the money or anything. That helps a lot! But I'm trying not to obsess about it too much right now while I'm just sitting around all day...
In the mean time, I will take the gondola up the mountain instead of running, and enjoy spending time with my sweet children and letting them take care of me. Here's some photos from the last few days:
Elle, at the top, showing off her season pass to Snowbasin Resort! We all got passes are are so excited about this!
Riding the gondola back down. We LOVE the gondola!
George is getting old enough to practically fend for himself now. He figured out how to open pistachios yesterday!
Tomorrow I'm going to try aqua jogging so that should be interesting! I'll keep you posted about how that goes.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
My Running Photo Shoot
I have a friend who is an amazing photographer who I met years ago when she did our family photos. This year she did our family photos again and I have been doing some baby-sitting for her. She's also doing my sister's wedding photos!
This year, she is doing a project on the side called RED where she is shooting women in red. She wanted to do one with a runner all in black with red shoes so she asked me if I wanted to do it. I needed new shoes anyway so I bought some red Nike Frees. I'm afraid these new shoes, that have a flatter heel drop than my other Frees, may have led to all my recent injuries. But for the most part I've really liked them so who knows!
We went out to The Great Salt Lake at sunset for the pictures and it was really fun!
Our First Rodeo
Here I sit icing my foot on this lovely Sunday morning. I was really hoping I'd get out of bed today and it would feel better, but it didn't. It's still really sore. I'm thinking I will go to a doctor this week.
Last night, I took Pete and the kids to The Mountain Valley Stampede Rodeo in Heber City (where I grew up, and where rodeo is big!). It was their first ever rodeo. I hadn't been to one since before I got married, and it was just how I remembered it, but so much more fun with the kids! We also went with my sister and her fiance and my dad and his wife which made it that much more fun.
I had to do more walking then my foot liked from the car to our spot on the bleachers, but I was fine just sitting there.
The clown did some funny and amazing tricks with a motorcycle, including spinning around and acting like he was going to fall off to jumping a big truck and trailer so that was really fun to see.
I think everyone liked the barrel racing the best. That's the event the crowd was able to get the most into. Elle especially LOVED that part. I've got to get that girl some horseback riding lessons or something. She asked me to take a picture of the girl who won so I did even though it's too far away to really see her.
It was a fun night, ending at like 10:30 with a pretty amazing firework show right over our heads! Pete brought the car around while we watched the fireworks to save me some walking and to get us out of there before the rush so that was nice. We didn't get home until close to Midnight so I was happy everyone slept in until at least 8!
Last night, I took Pete and the kids to The Mountain Valley Stampede Rodeo in Heber City (where I grew up, and where rodeo is big!). It was their first ever rodeo. I hadn't been to one since before I got married, and it was just how I remembered it, but so much more fun with the kids! We also went with my sister and her fiance and my dad and his wife which made it that much more fun.
The clown did some funny and amazing tricks with a motorcycle, including spinning around and acting like he was going to fall off to jumping a big truck and trailer so that was really fun to see.
I think everyone liked the barrel racing the best. That's the event the crowd was able to get the most into. Elle especially LOVED that part. I've got to get that girl some horseback riding lessons or something. She asked me to take a picture of the girl who won so I did even though it's too far away to really see her.
It was a fun night, ending at like 10:30 with a pretty amazing firework show right over our heads! Pete brought the car around while we watched the fireworks to save me some walking and to get us out of there before the rush so that was nice. We didn't get home until close to Midnight so I was happy everyone slept in until at least 8!
Saturday, August 3, 2013
ARG!!!
The good news: My Achilles tendon that I was so worried about for Timp Half, feels almost completely better and did not hurt at all after the race!
The bad new: Now the side of my foot, kind of my heel/outside arch, is hurting.
The day of the race, I felt fine. My Achilles was bothering me a little bit, but everything else felt fine. The day after the race, my Achilles felt better but my foot was hurting. I kind of felt like it was just cramping so I rolled it a bunch with my foot baller and I didn't really worry about it too much.
I took Sunday off completely to just rest, other than a walk to the store with George when I realized my foot was sore. Monday I went swimming which felt really good!
Tuesday I wanted to go for a bike ride, but slept in and ended up just riding bikes with the kids. That was fun though, and I felt like it was enough activity, especially since I took a ballet class that evening which didn't hurt my foot at all.
Now, I have no problem taking 3 days off running after a half marathon. That is the amount of time recommended by something I read once (haha), so I'm fine with that. I did want to be back running, at least an easy run, by Wednesday, though. My foot felt OK Tuesday night so I made plans with one of my running buddies. But when 5:30am came around, I got a message from her saying she wasn't going to make it since her baby was up all night. I thought I'd still go so I got up and got ready. But then, walking around, my foot didn't feel great so I ended up being too nervous about it to go. That evening I went and helped out with lighting at my sister's engagement photo shoot with the amazingly talented photographer, Elizabeth Taylor Frandsen. That required a lot of walking and my foot was pretty sore by the end, but it was a lot of fun!
Again on Thursday I planned an awesome bike ride, and again I slept in and did not go. I don't know why I can't get myself out on my bike when I don't have a race coming up! I love riding my bike, and I was really looking forward to it! But when the morning comes, I just can't get myself out of bed for it. Dang it! So Thursday was another day off, though we did go to Seven Peaks water park and walk around a lot. Then Pete and I went to screening of a film called "In The High Country" which shows Anton Krupicka, running on these crazy trails up and down mountains. It really made me excited to run again, and also get into trail running. I really need to do that. Also, Pete won a free pair of shoes at the raffle they had afterwards! Yay!
Friday I really, really wanted to run, and I decided I needed to determine if I could even do my long run or not so the kids and I rode our bikes to the park where they played and I ran around in a half mile loop so that I could stop at any time if it hurt. But it didn't! I ran 3 miles and IT FELT SO GOOD! I was so excited!
I didn't push myself, but I felt fast and I just had fun! My foot didn't hurt at all for most of it, but I must confess it did start to feel a tiny bit sore by the end. Then when I stopped and walked, it really hurt! What the heck!?
I posted on twitter: "So my foot hurts when I walk on it, but not when I run. Does that mean I shouldn't run? Or that I should run everywhere?"
No one gave me an answer. Maybe they thought it was just a silly question, but I was kind of serious about it.... What do I do guys?!
My foot hurt for a while after that run, but then by the end of the night, it was feeling pretty good. Plus I went to a meeting with my Ragnar Las Vegas team (yes, I'm going to try out Ragnar!) which got me excited about running again, so I decided to still try my 16 mile long run in the morning.
I know, I'm so smart, right?
Well, as you can guess, by the title of this post, that run didn't really go well.
I was at least smart enough to plan 2 x 8 mile runs instead of just going all out with the 16. Most of my first loop was good. I enjoyed it, and I still planned on doing the full 16. But by the time I got about a mile from home, I realized that my foot was starting to hurt pretty badly, and it was actually spreading to my ankle too. I finished the 8 miles and still mostly felt ok until I stopped to walk.
I would by lying if I said I didn't cry a little bit as I limped the last block to my house. I felt so frustrated and just wanted to punch something!! ARG!
I felt so good when I signed up for the Big Cottonwood Marathon! I was getting faster and really enjoying my long runs. I even did 14 miles back in May without being sore at all the next day. I felt great! And I am - well have been - so excited for this marathon too! Now I'm worried that I won't even be able to do it. After all, it's only 6 weeks away!
I figure I'll give my foot another week to rest and see if it feels better. If not I'll go in and get it x-rayed. If this is a stress fracture guys, you may not want to be around me for a little while. I will not be a happy camper.
I know it's just a stupid little injury and it could be so much worse! And I know that running should not define who I am, but it just feels like such a big part of me is missing when I can't run.
I need to be smarter and less optimistic about stuff like this. I always think, "Oh it's no big deal, it will be fine!" Then I run on it and realize it's not fine and that I really shouldn't ignore it. So I'm taking a week off. (Don't let me run this week!) More cross training will do me good anyway.
Has anyone had an injury similar to this??
The bad new: Now the side of my foot, kind of my heel/outside arch, is hurting.
The day of the race, I felt fine. My Achilles was bothering me a little bit, but everything else felt fine. The day after the race, my Achilles felt better but my foot was hurting. I kind of felt like it was just cramping so I rolled it a bunch with my foot baller and I didn't really worry about it too much.
I took Sunday off completely to just rest, other than a walk to the store with George when I realized my foot was sore. Monday I went swimming which felt really good!
Tuesday I wanted to go for a bike ride, but slept in and ended up just riding bikes with the kids. That was fun though, and I felt like it was enough activity, especially since I took a ballet class that evening which didn't hurt my foot at all.
Now, I have no problem taking 3 days off running after a half marathon. That is the amount of time recommended by something I read once (haha), so I'm fine with that. I did want to be back running, at least an easy run, by Wednesday, though. My foot felt OK Tuesday night so I made plans with one of my running buddies. But when 5:30am came around, I got a message from her saying she wasn't going to make it since her baby was up all night. I thought I'd still go so I got up and got ready. But then, walking around, my foot didn't feel great so I ended up being too nervous about it to go. That evening I went and helped out with lighting at my sister's engagement photo shoot with the amazingly talented photographer, Elizabeth Taylor Frandsen. That required a lot of walking and my foot was pretty sore by the end, but it was a lot of fun!
Friday I really, really wanted to run, and I decided I needed to determine if I could even do my long run or not so the kids and I rode our bikes to the park where they played and I ran around in a half mile loop so that I could stop at any time if it hurt. But it didn't! I ran 3 miles and IT FELT SO GOOD! I was so excited!
I didn't push myself, but I felt fast and I just had fun! My foot didn't hurt at all for most of it, but I must confess it did start to feel a tiny bit sore by the end. Then when I stopped and walked, it really hurt! What the heck!?
I posted on twitter: "So my foot hurts when I walk on it, but not when I run. Does that mean I shouldn't run? Or that I should run everywhere?"
No one gave me an answer. Maybe they thought it was just a silly question, but I was kind of serious about it.... What do I do guys?!
My foot hurt for a while after that run, but then by the end of the night, it was feeling pretty good. Plus I went to a meeting with my Ragnar Las Vegas team (yes, I'm going to try out Ragnar!) which got me excited about running again, so I decided to still try my 16 mile long run in the morning.
I know, I'm so smart, right?
Well, as you can guess, by the title of this post, that run didn't really go well.
I was at least smart enough to plan 2 x 8 mile runs instead of just going all out with the 16. Most of my first loop was good. I enjoyed it, and I still planned on doing the full 16. But by the time I got about a mile from home, I realized that my foot was starting to hurt pretty badly, and it was actually spreading to my ankle too. I finished the 8 miles and still mostly felt ok until I stopped to walk.
I would by lying if I said I didn't cry a little bit as I limped the last block to my house. I felt so frustrated and just wanted to punch something!! ARG!
I felt so good when I signed up for the Big Cottonwood Marathon! I was getting faster and really enjoying my long runs. I even did 14 miles back in May without being sore at all the next day. I felt great! And I am - well have been - so excited for this marathon too! Now I'm worried that I won't even be able to do it. After all, it's only 6 weeks away!
I figure I'll give my foot another week to rest and see if it feels better. If not I'll go in and get it x-rayed. If this is a stress fracture guys, you may not want to be around me for a little while. I will not be a happy camper.
I know it's just a stupid little injury and it could be so much worse! And I know that running should not define who I am, but it just feels like such a big part of me is missing when I can't run.
I need to be smarter and less optimistic about stuff like this. I always think, "Oh it's no big deal, it will be fine!" Then I run on it and realize it's not fine and that I really shouldn't ignore it. So I'm taking a week off. (Don't let me run this week!) More cross training will do me good anyway.
Has anyone had an injury similar to this??
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
