I knew it! Things got better

So, on my last post I talked about how I knew that if I could just hang in there, my body would adapt to my new normal and I would be okay. Well, muscle memory is incredible and our bodies are amazing. Last week was a little rough toward the end of my run. My calf muscles were tight knots and it took several days to loosen up. Today was awesome!  We had a commitment at 8:00 so we needed to be done by then. My alarm went off at 4:30 and I did not want to get up. I dragged my tired body out of bed and changed into my running clothes. We grabbed a banana and headed out. It often takes me a few miles to settle in but when my Garmn chimed another mile and I didn't know how far we'd gone and I looked and we had already gone 5 miles, I was hopeful it was going to be a good run. The temprature was nice and being early, it was quiet and peaceful. That's one of the thngs I love about running early. There is a peace that exists only in those early hours of morning and I get to fully partake of it because I'm awake and out enjoying it. We got to a convenient store just before mile 11. We hit the bathroom and my husband refilled his vest and we headed out. The sun still hadn't quite risen yet and St George truly is beautiful. Around mile 13, I commented to my husband that just a few weeks ago my calves were knots and my feet hurt and everything below my knees, all those tendons and ligaments hurt. Now, I was feeling incredible great. The last four miles passed without anything really worth noting. When we had 1/2 miles left, I decided I still had enough fuel in my tank to sprint to the finish. I really annoyed my husband. But it felt great to finish like that, strong. Now that I'm home, my calves are tight my not like the last few weeks. I feel great. I feel exceptionally blessed to be running again. 

We only have a few more weeks, three, until we've peaked and then we'll taper. I'm not as fast as I was before my injury but time will heal that too. 

Thanks for checking in with me and come back again soon. :)

I'm back. . .I hope

So a lot has happened so I have lots to catch up on. After lots of frustration, I finally went to see an orthopedic surgeon. I wanted the official opinion about whether running would re-injure my foot. He told me to slowly build and listen to my foot. If pain lasted more than two days, back off. Otherwise, training for my races should be fine. He didn't completely rule out a stress fracture but my insurance is finicky about MRIs so we opted not to do one and go with the tendinitis diagnosis. 

I set out running two days a week to train for Ragnar Napa Valley. I was building to 8 miles/23 miles. It was too late to try to run all those miles so I was going to run/elliptical. Shortly into my training, I had a conversation with my brother. He has torn his minicus, again. We talked with the rest of our team and determined that we would sell our team and try again in a few years. So now I'm just training for the St. George Marathon. Fortunately, I have enough time, barring another injury, to train all of my miles on the road. 

Last Saturday was my first all road, all running training run. My husband and I went 11 miles. The farthest I had gone on my foot up to that point was only seven miles. I handled it okay until about 8 or 9 miles in and then I could really feel the work. Everything from my knees down hurt. My hip flexors were sore, my calves were screaming knots, my feet hurt and every single tendon was sore. I have just babied everything so that my foot could heal. I made it through those 11 miles and was sore in my calves and tendons for a few days. I knew if I could just make it through about three runs, my body would adapt to my new "normal". 

Last night, I set all my running stuff out, my shorts and tank, shoes, sunglasses, Garmin, hydration vest. I set my alarm clock for 5:30 so we could be out the door at 6:00. 5:30 rolls around and it's raining. Really pouring. My husband looked up a radar weather map and I headed outside. It was windy. Really windy. And then I saw the clencher: lightning. I do NOT run in or around lightning. We went back to bed, all the while I was frettng that my foot wouldn't be able to handle a 4 mile jump in miles. I was also worrying about losing time for my body to adapt. I woke up at 7:30 to cloud cover. I decided to eat breakfast and then go to the gym and run as much as I could stand on the track and treadmill. I ate breakfast on the deck and realized it was cooler outside than inside. It's been weeks since that has happened. The cloud cover looked like it would hold for a while so I decided to head out and see how far I could go before it got too warm. My husband quickly got ready and joined me. At five miles we were down to only light cloud cover and by eight, my husband told me he had been fighting what he thought was a side ache for awhile. I handed him half of the Clif bar I had and we walked while he ate it. I could tell that my body was already holding up better than last week. About a mile or so down the road, my husband decided maybe he was hungry and that was the real problem so I handed him the other half. We kind of ran/walked for another mile or so and he told me to finish the run and he would just walk home. It wasn't fast but I did it. I ran 13 miles today and it felt okay. My tendons will likely be a little sore, maybe my calves but I did it. And without pain meds. 

Next week we head out for 15. I'll check the forcast a few days out and plan accordingly. Thanks for checking back in with me. Let me know if you have any questions and come back agan soon. :)