Unbelievably, I felt nervous heading out on my first run over 3 miles in months. And so, I donned a prior race shirt (in this case, my one ultra) to help me remember who I was as runner.
Off I went. It was freaking glorious. I ran up hills feeling strong. My calves were quiet. My pace was slow but not OMG I could walk faster slow; more cautious than anything. My cardio was good. I was delighted the whole 4 miles.
And so I did.
Just like old times, I grabbed my running bff and we headed out for a FLAT 5 miles. And, just like old times my calves whispered, then screamed. I walked. I gnashed my teeth.
Clearly, they were tired from my victorious run two days before, but really, this was all too familiar.
So, I can’t run the way I want to. I can occasionally run 3 miles, but training is out of the question. I am opening my palm and letting it go. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Since I can’t run I’ve decided to give the barefoot/minimalist trend a serious go. You have to start painfully slow with short distances with that anyway. I’ve since run/walked 2 miles in my Newton’s and then barefoot. It was ok, but glorious is not the word that comes to mind. Still, I got it done.
I’ll keep you updated.
In other news, I cleaned off the mess of my nightstand today. Look what I found:
I read that magazine and apparently it didn’t help much. Still, it’s nice to see I can be optimistic.
And in a WOW, pigs can fly sort of way, we had rope climbing as part of the workout of the day (WOD) in crossfit and dayum if I wasn’t the best female rope climber there. Success was sweet. Getting down was not. I needed gloves. And socks. I went up 5 times. Down 5 times.
Sadly, it resulted in a weeping wound on my ankle where the skin was rope burned off and several inner thigh bruises (I’ll spare you that scary sight). Last night it hurt in my sleep. Today I realized it was still weepy. And hot. It doesn’t look nearly as terrible as it feels. owwww. I slapped Neosporin on it.
OUch, that looks really painful!!!! :(
ReplyDeleteI think you might want to look into this:
ReplyDeletehttp://thinkweirdthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/04/compartment-syndrome.html
Welcome back to the running tribe. Glad to hear that you're able to enjoy it again. Good luck on your transition to barefoot / minimalist running. I'm glad that I made the move even though it took me a year to get there. I love running in minimalist shoes though, and I'm a total shoe geek now.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get a run in with you (and maybe even Mike) next time I'm down there visiting... whenever the hell that is.
Molly, it is looking worse today. Cracks me up. More cream. I think I might band aid it too.
ReplyDeletePaul, that is exactly what my physical therapist said he thought I had. The fix isn't very easy though. I'm gonna try the barefoot thing for awhile and see how that goes.
Jason, I have to actually be running to run with you. Or, we can go out for a barefoot/minimalist shoe walk/run. I've always been a shoe geek; it's nice to have a new line to buy into.
Well I googled around for alternative treatments for chronic CS...there are a few but mostly they don't seem to work.
ReplyDeleteYou should probably get 'pressure tested' to see if that's what your really dealing with...if not that might suggest some other ideas of what's going on.
Surgery is a mixed bag it seems, some folks are really lucky and some not...not a bad idea to avoid it for a bit.
If PT people say they can't fix CS, then I doubt minimalist shoes will help, but hey, it's worth a shot.
Be sure to ramp the new running style slowly..a guy here at my workplace just tried to go barefoot too much to soon with the expected results...hurt foot.
Paul, Thank you for looking around for me. Did you see any Drs. in the South Bay who have any experience with it? Because I have not. I read that some people had the surgery arthroscopically and that is the route I'd like to go if I need to.
ReplyDeleteI do have to get pressure tested, but to do that I have to prepare myself mentally and I guess I'm not there yet. Almost. What I have to do is start running, then throw in a hill, then a wonderful trail run and bam, I'm done. Last year I got to where I couldn't walk up a hill without stopping, my calves were so painful. Depressing.
So did you and running break up? Eat Rant Work now? I'd scold you more but I blew my wad complaining about your husband's lack of blogging.
ReplyDeletewe miss you....
ReplyDelete