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??