Working It

Sunday - 1 hour yoga podcast, plus clamshell planks, calf raises, and PT stretches, and foam rolling. Still no ankle pain. Good sign.

Monday - 33 minutes / 2.4 miles, including .5 mile running. Same running pace as last time but increased the speed a bit on the walking part. Ankle hurt a little bit immediately afterwards but didn't hurt during or later in the day. I'll take it. Shins felt weird, but maybe that is just from not running regularly for, oh, over 4 months.

Tuesday - Upper body strength training, planks, squats at lunch. Also did clamshell planks in the AM.

Wednesday - Rest. And traveling.

Thursday - Upper body strength training with the resistance band, core work, clamshell planks, pushups.

Friday - 1 mile run (ankle still OK), plus walking to Black Friday shopping.

Saturday - Rest. Or maybe some exercise later, but I am not feeling overly ambitious.

Working It

Of course I post that I think I am finally turning a corner and I have another setback. After having minimal to no pain for more that a week, things were not so good again. But I think that was because of a bad foot cramp while I was doing planks last week.  Maybe? Setback aside, I started having days totally pain-free. I couldn't tell you the last time that happened. This is good, I think.

Sunday - Rest. Oops. Wanted to do yoga but ran out of time.

Monday - Day off for a holiday. 40 minutes on the bike, plus clamshell planks and foam rolling. Also walked about a mile total to run some errands. It was almost 70 degrees. In November.

Tuesday - upper body strength training with the resistance band, pushups, squats, clamshell planks, balance exercises, PT stretches, and foam rolling.

Wednesday - Rest.

Thursday - 35 minutes on the bike, clamshell planks, PT stretches, foam rolling.

Friday - Upper body strength training, planks, twisting crunches with a medicine ball, clamshell planks, and foam rolling at lunch. Can I mention one more time that I am super grateful that I work in a place that encourages employees to use their lunch breaks to exercise? 'Cause I love that.

Saturday - 33 minutes/2.3 miles walking (mostly) on the treadmill. That included .5 mile of running. Also did core work, clamshell planks, PT stretches, and foam rolling. Ankle felt fine and then felt OK for the rest of the day. Still felt fine the next day!

Working It

I know I have said this before, but I finally think my ankle is healing. It has not hurt at all in over a week. And it has felt pleasantly itchy. Healing? I think so. I still am not running and am not sure when I will be back out there. But hopefully soon. Slowly and carefully. Very slowly and very carefully. I am optimistic that these are promising signs.

Sunday - PT stretches, foam rolling, clamshell planks, and 20 minutes of yoga.

Monday - 30 minutes on the bike, clamshell planks, foam rolling.

Tuesday - upper body strength training with the resistance band, pushups, squats, clamshell planks, foam rolling, PT stretches.

Wednesday - Rest, unless stretching and foam rolling count as exercise.

Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical. Ankle did not hurt at all during or afterwards. PT stretches, clamshell planks, and foam rolling.

Friday - Upper body lifting, clamshell planks, pushups, regular planks, and balance exercises at lunch. PT stretches, core work, and squats in the evening.

Saturday - 45 minutes on the bike. PT stretches and these lunge-like things. And some time with the good old foam roller.

Turning the Corner?

The good news. I made it through a week with the walking boot, then a half-and-half week.

The upside to being stuck in a walking boot was wearing yoga pants and sneakers (well, one sneaker) to work. I could have worn skirts or regular pants. But I felt pretty self-conscious. By the end, I didn't care, but in the beginning I did. Then I had problems with shoes. The boot has a decent heel to it. Flat shoes were out. I needed a shoe with a little height so that I wasn't walking lopsided. I went to a shopping mall and a grocery store where I got some funny looks. Whatever, people. Most people didn't say anything. Actually, several people didn't even notice for days. Only one person asked me what happened (we decided bar fight sounded better than tendonitis), and only one person offered to open a door. I always found a seat on the Metro.

The bad news. The boot started hurting my foot, and I still wasn't better by the end of 2 weeks. So. very. frustrating. There is a good deal of trial and error with this particular injury, but come on. Really, tendon? Why were you still unhappy? Unhappy tendon made me unhappy. Literally. My mental health took a downward turn over the last several weeks. I was cranky, frustrated, and just not my usual self.

But then there was better news. I started getting through days without pain unassisted by the walking boot or anti-inflammatory meds. You know when you get a cut and it starts to itch when it heals? That's kinda how my ankle felt. Now I gotta start doing my PT exercises again. I kept working on my hips and foam rolling, but I stopped doing anything involving my ankle a few weeks ago. I'm done with actually going to PT. Everything I was doing, I can pretty much do on my own.

So now I wait and see. Again. Very cautiously.

Working It

It was another week with mostly strength training. I think I need to be diligent about foam rolling my calves. Like do it every day diligent.

Maybe ... maybe ... maybe I am back on track and my ankle is finally getting better. Maybe. I've been here before. Things seem to get better and then I have a setback. 

Sunday - Spectating at the Marine Corps Marathon. Walked about 3 miles total. Rang a cow bell for hours. My vocal chords got lots of exercise ;-)

Monday - No work because pretty much everything in DC shut down for Hurricane Sandy. Upper body strength training with a resistance band, pushups, body weight squats, core work, and clamshell planks. And foam rolling.

Tuesday - Another day with no work. Clamshell planks, core work, balance exercises, foam rolling.

Wednesday - Rest.

Thursday - Clamshell planks, pushups, upper body strength training with the resistance band, core work, foam rolling.

Friday - Rest.

Saturday - 30 minutes on the stationary bike. First time doing cardio in I don't remember how long. The good news is that, despite a long time without cardio, it wasn't awful. The even better news is my ankle didn't hurt. Cross your fingers that this keeps up.

Race Spectating @ MCM

Despite having to pull out because of an injury, I went out to the Marine Corps Marathon to cheer on the runners. Big city marathons are fun events. Four friends from Rhode Island came down to run it.  How could I not go out and watch them??

All week, the forecast looked bad. Hurricane Sandy looked like she was going to seriously impact the race. On race morning, the weather forecast during the race said showers or rain. Well, there was no rain at all!  It was windy but otherwise near perfect running weather. Not sunny and cool.

Marine Corps is a pretty easy marathon to spectate at. I planned 3 spots. Took the Metro to Foggy Bottom, walked to mile 10 (along Rock Creek Parkway and the Potomac River), then walked to the Lincoln Memorial and The Mall, watched at mile 17, then Metroed over to the Pentagon at mile 24.

I made 2 double-sided posters. Only one came along with me because I thought it was going to rain. I had a plastic sleeve to protect the poster from rain. One of my brilliant ideas was to tape a wide ribbon to the poster so that I could hang the poster around my neck. It kept the poster from blowing away (and even then I had to hold it with at least 1 hand). When I wasn't holding the poster, I rang a cow bell like mad.

Side 1 said, "WHERE ARE Y'ALL GOING?" This poster was so much fun. It was a great way to interact with runners. I got all sorts of answers, including:
I don't know
This way
To the finish line
Home!
Come with us
Away from the hurricane

When I got to mile 24, I flipped the poster to Side 2. This poster said, "REACH DEEP. Yes, You Can!" Especially in the later miles of a marathon, you need a short phrase or a positive message that motivates you to keep going. I got a lot of positive responses from runners.

Tips for Posters
1. Write big. Keep the message on your poster as short as possible. Less is more.
2. Write in ALL CAPS.
3. Use a wide-tipped marker and make your words stand out.
4. Use mantras. Some of my favorites are Right here right now, Finish strong, Reach Deep, and Don't stop. Anything positive and motivational that is short enough for me to repeat over and over again
5. Tailor the message to where you will be on the course. Runners in the later miles are tired and fighting a mental and physical battle. I intentionally used the Where are y'all going poster earlier and saved Reach Deep for the end. I think this worked well.

Working It

Did I do one of these weekly recaps last week? I do not even remember.

Well, it's kinda boring. I did no cardio at all because I was stuck in a walking boot til the middle of the week. So I will not do a day-by-day recap. But I will tell you about the things I did.

Upper body strength training - once with weights and twice with a resistance band

Planks

Squats - against a wall with an exercise ball, no weights except for me

Pushups

Core work

Clamshell planks - one of my PT exercises. Get into a side plank position with your elbow and knee on the floor, keep your feet together, and open your top knee up like a clamshell. Repeat on the other side. Good for hips and glutes.

Not Working It

I haven't posted a weekly recap for the last few weeks because it would be pretty boring. There has been a whole lot of not working out over the last few weeks.  I did some walking, yoga, strength training, core work, PT exercises, biking on the stationary bike, and yoga. A lot of rest. No cardio at all for the last week because I am extremely limited in what I can do. I am not one to skip out on working out, but I really can't.

It probably wasn't a good idea to go for a walk on the Mall about a week ago. I had some time to kill after work before I needed to be somewhere else. Runners everywhere. Perfect weather. 

Maybe ... maybe ... maybe I'll be back out there soon.

Here We Go Again

My sports doc recommended a cortisone shot or a walking boot. And prescription anti-inflammatory meds.

I was very leery of a cortisone shot immediately. There are a number of risks. Tendon rupture is one. Cortisone shots stop the pain, but they don't really treat it. Also, did you hear about the recent series of meningitis cases from bad steroids? No thank you.

So I opted for the boot. One week on, then every other day for another week. Be very jealous. I am not looking forward to people treating me like the walking wounded, but I am looking forward to running a social psychology experiment on altruistic behavior on the Metro. I'm actually not kidding about that last part.

Posterior tibial tendonitis seems to be one of those tricky things to treat. There is a lot of trial and error to figure out what works. Rest alone (meaning, no exercise) is not enough to get the tendon to calm down. Even walking can continue to irritate the tendon. For most people, walking is not optional. Enter the walking boot which immobilizes the angry tendon.

Cross your fingers that this works. I am patiently not running, but I am quickly running out of patience with not running. I don't know what I am going to do for exercise since cardio and yoga are off-limits. Body weight exercise that don't involve my feet/legs? Core work?

Hey, angry tendon, please cut this out. Pretty please?

Injury Emotion Cycle

You go through many emotions when you are injured.

For example:

I am sad that the weather is finally cooler and I can't go outside and run.

I am discouraged that I am still in pain. Four weeks of PT left me at pretty much the same place I started. I go back to see the sports doctor tomorrow because I ran out of PT appointments.

I am disappointed that I am missing my favorite half marathon for the first time in its existence. Goodbye, Amica Newport Half Marathon legacy.

I am frustrated that I can't go running in Rock Creek Park or on the Mall.

I am scared that I will get injured again.


It was bittersweet seeing people run their last 20 milers before Marine Corps last weekend.

I don't like looking at my calendar with no races lined up.

I am trying really really really hard to stay positive. It is getting harder and harder to be optimistic.