Black Friday , 11 miles and Many Thanks!!

So like I mentioned in my last blog I have been running 20 miles a week.  I had read in Runner's World that it's a great idea to run a slow, long run the day after Thanksgiving since it's a great carb-loaded meal.  What a great idea!  Why didn't I think to do this before?  Then I soon realized that the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday.  I always go shopping on Black Friday and this year I set out at 10:30 pm and didn't arrive back home until 8:30 am.  Obviously with such little rest, it would've been a bad idea to run a long run.  Therefore, instead of running I slept until 1:30, went to parents for left overs and slept for another 2 hours.  I awoke to find this picture, taken by my lovely sister, posted on facebook!  I guess you could say I was tired.  So I planned on running Saturday.

Well I had only run 9 miles by Saturday so I was due for an 11 mile run if I planned on reaching 20 miles for the week.  I set out nice and slow planning to run 5 miles then stop back at my house for some sport jelly beans (from Leaha - thanks!) and water.  After that I planned to run my normal 6 mile loop, thinking if I had to I could always call Brent for a ride home if it proved to be too much.  I didn't have to call him and I ran as planned.  As usual, I felt better than I expected.  I probably felt my best around mile 7, which is amazing!  I ended my run 11 miles later in 1:46:21 and I wasn't even sore the next day.  I should mention here though, that my 4 mile run on Monday was pretty tough.  This makes me realize that running really is a mental sport.  If I am setting out to run 4 I will only run 4, but as you can read if I set out to run 11 I can run 11.  It never ceases to amaze me what my body is capable of doing! 

In case you were wondering, Black Friday wasn't even worth it.  I will never go at midnight again.  In previous years I always went in the morning and I made out much better.  I did get a new laptop for $300 and Brent's gift for half the price, but other those I have nothing to show for all that time and loss of sleep.  

As you can imagine running 11 miles gives me plenty of time to do some thinking.  I spent this run thinking about the many things I have to be thankful.  I must have thanked God 20 times for healing me and giving me the ability to run again.  I also thanked him for blessing me with an amazing, loving husband, a caring, supportive family, and thoughtful, encouraging friends.  I even thanked him for the blue skies, balmy weather, and the wind at my back - all perfect running conditions.  I thanked him for a happy, healthy, fulfilling life and for being an amazing, loyal God who loves me through and through.

10 miles!!

Can you believe it??  Yaaay!  I finally feel like myself again!  I have been running 20 miles a week for almost a month and a half now.  I had read in one of my Runner's World magazine's that to determine whether or not you are ready for your first marathon you should be able to run 20 miles a week for 2 months, so that's what I've been working on.  Anytime I've reached a new distance goal, I have been scaling back on my long runs for two weeks.  Although, to keep with the 20 mile per week goal I then have to lengthen my weekly runs.  This seems to really be working for me.  This is the best I've felt post injury.  I am so thankful!  I am still shocked that I was able to tackle 10 miles without any pain - as an added plus I was never sore afterward either!  My doctor still wants me to rule out compartment syndrome so I am going to a sports medicine doc for a consultation on Nov. 22nd.  My hope is that he'll say it's unnecessary.  I heard the testing is pretty intense and I'm such a wuss!  Hopefully I'll be posting more about my first encounter with a marathon.  You do realized that what was supposed to be a 4 month blog has now turned into a 9 month blog (to date).  Hopefully it will turn into a 16 month blog (that will mean I actually accomplished a marathon)!

7 miles!!!

Soooo after listening to the doctor and taking a month off of running I am finally feeling like myself again.  I ran 7 miles yesterday!!  That is my farthest distance yet!

I eased back into running the first week in August.  I started with one measly mile, but obviously this paid off.  Before I knew it 3 weeks had gone by and I was up to my comfortable 3 miles.  I spent a lot of time running over our vacation the third week in August.  I think I ran 5 days that week.  Taping the gauze over my hernia for the past month on every run has kept me pain free.  My achilles aren't bothering me anymore either...well except for those initial steps out of bed in the morning, but I keep reading and hearing as long as it's not hurting during running or walking I should be fine.  All of those heel drops must have paid off.  I have not been doing them at all anymore.  For some reason I just never think to do them, except for random times when I am unable to do them (at work, in bed, in the car, while running).  However, since I am seriously thinking about tackling this marathon training again in January I better get into the habit of doing them daily.  I DO NOT want to risk another injury because of sheer laziness/forgetfulness!

I'm so excited to think I may actually be able run the marathon this time!  I ran 19 miles last week and 18 miles this week.  Here's to praying for the strength to continue moving forward, slowly increasing mileage with ease and the ability to listen to my body.

2 chicks, a hernia and 4 miles

So I had this bright idea to hatch some chicks.  My friend's mom has chickens so she picked out 10 eggs for me and lent me her incubator.  All you have to do is keep the temperature at 99.5 degrees and turn each egg once in the morning and once in the evening.  So one day I checked the incubator and noticed that the temperature was only 80 degrees (a fuse had blown).  Then I went to the beach for the week and left my mom in charge of the eggs.  Well she felt it was too much of a hassle to drive back and forth to my house twice a day (a 5 mile commute) so she put the eggs into an egg carton, packed up the incubator and transported them to her house.  I came back from vacation and decided just to leave them there until they hatched.  I didn't want to jostle them too much.  So Monday night one of the eggs cracked and by Tuesday morning a chick had hatched.  Two more hatched my Wednesday.  However, one of them died by Friday.  No more eggs ever hatched.  Hmmmm maybe they weren't fertilized, maybe they were too weak to survive the temp change and the move.  Who knows?  Now I'm left with two cute chicks.  My dad is worried they won't survive the winter in their coop with only two chicks to huddle.  Therefore, I am looking into buying 2 or 3 more chicks.  Hopefully in the next 4-6 months I'll have my very own fresh eggs to eat each morning!

As for this hernia.  I have continued to run and I made it up to 3 miles before I went to my follow up appointment last week.  I told him that my lower leg was still bulging after running.  He suggested I put a folded up piece of gauze over the area and tape it there to hold it in.  I did this and boy what a difference it made.  He also informed me I could begin training for a marathon again.  I got super excited and decided it would be a great idea to train for the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon.  Then I thought about it and realized it may just be better to ease back into this and shoot for the Delaware Marathon in May.  After all the director already took my payment from 2011 and applied it to 2012 (no refunds).  Also, I am still not sold on this hernia thing or the fact that I should be running on it.  So I am working on getting an appointment to see a sports medicine doctor for a second opinion.  I may be acting overly cautious here, but I'd rather err on the side of caution than encounter 4 months of suffering again.

Just yesterday I ventured out to see if I could handle a 4 mile run.  So I taped up my "hernia", warmed up with a walk, stretched and hit the pavement.  I felt awesome at the beginning of my run, like I never stopped running.  After about 3 miles my achilles began to act up so I stopped to stretch.  I made it to my friends house for a total of 4.06 miles .  I sat and chatted with her for about 45 minutes then headed home.  My achilles didn't hurt at all and the rest of me felt great too.  I was so excited!  Thank you Lord!  I'm running again tomorrow morning so we'll see how I feel after a "long" run. 

Take that "lower leg hernia"!!

slow and steady

Well I ran last Wednesday for the first time in a month.  I warmed up on the elliptical for a half hour, stretched out my achilles then ran a mile on the treadmill at a 10 minute pace.  Right away I could feel my ankle and after 5 mins my ankle stopped but my achilles tightened up.  Overall it was not a great run.  I left feeling pretty defeated.  I came home to ice and do heel drops.  Recently I read about an experiment to improve achilles tendonitis.  It focuses on eccentric calf exercises - heel drops off the edge of a step with a straight leg then a bent leg.  It recommends 3 sets of 15 reps of each type twice a day.  That's 180 heel drops a day - ugh!  So time consuming.  However, I'm willing to try anything at this point.  The experiment showed improvement in 70% of its patients.  That is after 6 months of 180 heel drops a day!!  So Friday I ran a mile outside and I had no pain at all!  I was so thankful!  Brent and I went for a run last night and I felt good then too.  However, I went to run this morning and I did not feel nearly as good as the last two.  I guess this could be expected.  I am sure it's going to come in waves.  I made sure to ice as soon as I got back.  Later I did heel drops and iced again.  I'm praying Wednesday's run goes better.  Meanwhile I'll be doing more heel drops, icing and cross training.  This journey is definitely taking longer than I had ever envisioned, but I'm not ready to give up.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

pay it forward

So I got cash back at the self check out at Redner's today around 4:15 and at 7:15 it dawned on me that I never picked it up.  I go there (praying the whole way there) and asked the lady at self check out if anyone turned it in - nope.  She told me to check with customer service.  I knew it was doubtful, but on my way I decided to look in the machine that I had checked out at just in case it was still there.  Low and behold there it was sitting in the machine!  There was a guy there checking out so I asked him if it was his - it wasn't!  Wow - I will definitely pay that one forward!!!

As for running, my foot and ankle doc recommended I take another 2 weeks off which leaves me waiting until next Wednesday.  However, he felt as though custom orthotics were unnecessary at this point.  He thinks there's a good possibility I could have a hernia in my lower leg, but also agrees with my family doc that the pain I'm experiencing could simply be from the stress on my shin.  Therefore, he recommended I get over the counter orthotics.  Thank goodness, because they are only $40 at shoe stores compared to $300 or more for custom.  Instead of going to the New Balance store to by them, I actually ended up getting them on Amazon along with a book that Oxford's cross country coach recommended (The Lore of Running) for a total of $40.  They should be here this weekend.  Then I'll have 4 days to break them in with walking.  I'm going to slowly ease back into running - 10 mins at a time and build up to a comfortable 30.  I hope they make a big difference! 

escaping reality

It has been a month since I've written and I think it's because I don't want to face reality.  Once I post it, it's real for everyone to see including myself.  So here goes nothing...after my first MRI my doctor called with the results.  He said I had no structural damage anywhere, but that my achilles looked irritated.  I could continue to run, but it would be essential for me to ice and stretch before and after each run.  I was on vacation when I got the results.  I ran 5 days that week (more than I ever run) because there were no other workouts available to me.   On my fifth run I set out to run 5 miles.  My cousin and Brent dropped me off in a state park in Va Beach.  I had no idea how long the trail was, but set out to run.  I used my gps on my phone to figure out it was a five mile trail from one end to the next.  After about half way through it my achilles began to feel tired and tight (which is nothing new), but so was the side of my leg -about 3 inches above my ankle.  When I stopped to stretch it felt like it the muscle was tearing away from my bone.  There was also some soft tissue protruding.  So here I am in the middle of the woods on some trail I've never run before.  I have definitely felt the sensation of my muscle being torn from my shin before, but it was years ago and just recently it has come up sporadically so I hadn't thought much about it.  I thought it was some sort of shin splint since it wasn't nagging and would go away on it's own (never lasted for more than 5 mins after a run).  So I kept running.  I finished the run and it didn't feel as bad as it did before.  However, I still felt it for the next 2 days (not as bad).  I called the doctor when we got back on Monday and went in that afternoon.  He was worried that I could have a stress fracture or compartment syndrome of the lower leg.  He had me schedule another MRI - this time for my lower leg (of course they couldn't see the area on my other MRI since it was focused on my ankle/achilles).  I just got the results for this MRI last Friday.  Thankfully there is no fracture, however there is definitely stress on my tibia (shin bone) and I have to get orthotics to prevent a stress fracture.  He thinks this will make a big difference and I will be able to continue running.  I'm going on Wednesday to see a foot and ankle specialist to get the ball rolling.  I feel like an old woman and I'm only 28!  Ha, the lengths I will go to run...let's hope this is it!  If it isn't, am I really going to try something else just so I can continue to run?  It's so hard for me because I feel like I should just suck it up and do other types of workouts for exercise, but I truly love running.  It does so many things for me.  It gives me a quiet time to think, pray and reflect on life.  It gives me energy, discipline and goals.  It has made me new friends and closer with old friends.  It allows me to eat whatever I want (well pretty much).  It's freeing, it's fun, it's challenging, it relieves stress and I miss it!!