Minor setbacks

It's been a long time.  Almost two months.  What happened to me?  Let's look back (insert Wayne's World flashback sound here...)

Last I left you was shortly before Thanksgiving.  But I'm going to back it up a little more.  At the beginning of November I was out for my weekly long run.  Part of my route involved having to run on some even ground.  By uneven, I mean a few inches of level grass before sloping sharply.  While I didn't have any acute pain when having to run there, it began to hurt later on.  And it would hurt while walking.  If I avoiding running, it would get better.  If I ran, it wouldn't hurt much while running, but would hurt again afterwards.  I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning.  Again, it didn't hurt while running, but hurt like crazy through the weekend.

Then I had a week break from running by going to Disney World.  While I did a lot of walking, I wasn't in any pain.

I went ahead and made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor.  I figured they would be better equipped to handle my problem than my regular family practice doctor.  I'm really glad I went to the sports medicine doctor.  If anyone in the Atlanta area needs a sports medicine doctor, I will be happy to recommend him to you.  Instead of nurses who initially see you and take your history, the doctors are paired with a sports trainer.  They suspected I could have a stress fracture, so I was sent for an MRI.  The MRI showed I had a stress reactive condition, meaning I didn't have a visible stress fracture but had inflammation indicating I could be developing a stress fracture.

So I was put in a walking boot for four weeks and banned from running, biking, and swimming.  After being so active for about seven months, it was a change of pace.  Given that it was the Christmas season, having to be inactive while eating more than usual was unfortunate.

Fortunately, everything seems on the mend.  I was pain-free coming out of the boot.  The rehab plan is in effect.  I was allowed to ride my bike for 4-5 days first.  I got an indoor trainer for my bike.  Which was good since it was rainy and/or cold.  Then I was allowed to do elliptical work.  I'm in that period now.  I"m taking advantage of a 7 day pass to a gym to get the elliptical work done.  The bonus has been there's a pool at the gym and I've been able to get some swimming practice done.  Once I'm done with the elliptical, I'm supposed to make contact with the doctor before I can begin running again.

I'm still planning to run a half marathon at the end of February.  I'm not expecting to be able to run the whole distance.  My plan is to alternate running and walking.  Hopefully, I'll get to start running again this week and I"ll remain pain free.  Fingers crossed.

The Athlete Within

I think I've mentioned before that I've spent most of my life not being an athlete.  I had an athletic spurt in 5th and 6th grades when I played softball.  But I played catcher, so the most running I would have to do would be potentially running the bases when batting (not necessarily a common occurrence).  I considered doing field hockey in high school when they were just starting a team, but decided against all of the running.  For my two required P.E. classes in college, I took fencing and gymnastics.  I enjoyed them both while still avoiding having to run around too much.  (What I really wanted to take was horseback riding, but that's another story for another day.)

Now my inner athlete has chosen this year to emerge.  And it's not been happy to limit itself to just one activity.  How far have I come in seven months?  (Glad you asked)

I run.  My longest run to date has been seven miles, set two weeks ago.  And I'm planning to run a half-marathon in February.  Up next is a Thanksgiving day 5K.  I'm actually seeking out things to do.

I bike.  I did over 60 miles over 2 days in September (on my almost 20 year old mountain bike).  I really enjoy being on my bike.  I'm now the proud owner of a proper road bike.  I'm already signed up to the MS Bike ride next year.  I may do the 60 mile ride first day.

I condition.  I'm taking a fit class so I can get some all-over strength training.  The biking and running don't really lend themselves to upper-body improvement.

I swim?  If you recall from my Tin Man Triathlon experience, the swim was my weakest leg.  While I can keep afloat and move about in a pool, I don't have a proper stroke.  And I can't coordinate my breathing and swimming.  Or, I should say, I couldn't.  I got a co-worker who does triathlons to give me a swimming lesson.  While I still don't have anything pretty, I at least feel like I could get from one side of the pool to the other with something resembling a stroke without gasping for breath or feeling completely worn out by the time I got to the other side.  Now what I need is practice.  And for that, I need to find a pool.  There's no community pool in the county I live in.  The pool used for the lesson is not particularly convenient.  I'll figure something out.

Where this inner athlete has been hiding all my life up to this point, I don't know.  But I like her.  And I hope she sticks around for a while.  I'm doing my best to keep her here.

Brrr...

The weather has been a bit schizophrenic the past couple of weeks.  Hot one day, cold the next, nice the next.  I've run in the rain and I've biked in the windy cold.  So I'm having to put together my cold-weather gear.  But it's actually pretty nice doing my workouts in the cooler weather.  I don't get as sweaty.  And I feel I can go faster.

To that end, I'm also working on increasing my running pace.  My during the week workouts are going to be intervals where I alternate running and walking.  For the running segments I will be trying to run harder and faster than my usual pace.  I've done it once so far and I was able to achieve the goal of running faster for short segments.

The weekends I'm going to try to start alternating long runs and long bikes.  I want to join in with the group rides from my local Trek shop.

Need for speed

I know that I titled my blog "Run when chased..." but my fits of athleticism has expanded into cycling.  I am also being encouraged by others to expand into triathlons.  Despite my participation in the Tin Man Triathlon, my lack of swimming skills will keep me from jumping into that arena for now.
Backing up a little, two weeks ago I had to travel for professional reasons.  Between the MS Bike ride and that trip, I didn't do any biking.  I gave myself a rest.  I still ran, though.  During my trip, I did get up on a stationary bike once, availed myself of the treadmill a couple of times, and ran outside once.  I felt really good about keeping up my fitness goals while travelling and running a meeting (which was completely stressful for me).

And now to this weekend's main event.  About mid-week I decided to sign up for a Brest Cancer Awareness ride which was being hosted by the local Trek Bicycle stores yesterday.  I did a 25 mile ride from the Peachtree City store.  It was fun and a good opportunity for a nice long ride (compared to the 5 miles I usually accomplish during the week).  And it reinforced my desire for a road bike.

So...meet my new gear:

It's my new road bike!  It's so light!  I've got new pedals and shoes to go with it!  I will be Speedy Gonzalez!  And I will not hurt so bad on the hills!  Now I just have to get better at getting into my pedals and shifting (it's a completely different system than my mountain bike).

I plan on occasionally joining the group rides out of my local Trek shop so I can continue getting in some long rides.  And I'm still running and preparing for my half-marathon in February.