Back in the game!

I am happy to report that I am healed!! Well, for the most part.  I did a test run Tuesday morning at the hotel on the treadmill.  I did a warmup, then did intervals of 1/2 mile running with 1/4 mile walking, for a total of 2.3 miles.  Then I tested it out the very next day, but did intervals of 1 mile running with 0.2 miles walking.  I did notice a little twinge of something above my achilles after my run while I was getting ready for work.  I don't know if it was the fact that I ran two days in a row, or it was the longer intervals.  I iced it at work and stretched, and by the middle of my shift I felt better.  I know it's going to take some strengthening and baby steps till I'm full out running 5 miles.  Right now I need to be cautious because I don't want to reinjure it.  I have come so far!  I plan on working out today, so I will test it again.  I might cut back and do 3/4 mile intervals. 

I was trying to figure out the best way to repay the physical therapist that helped me.  He saw me twice and didn't charge me a thing!  He is a local runner, so I think he was just trying to help me out.  He was so generous to provide me with therapy where he works and not charge me anything.  I thought about getting him a giftcard to runningwarehouse.com.  Then, I heard that he was thinking about running the Deckers Creek Trail Half Marathon, which is in Morgantown.  I had registered to race it, but can't run it now.  I emailed the race director to see if I could give my spot to somebody and she told me yes.  So, I messaged him and told him he could run in my spot.  I feel better that I can at least give him that.  I can't remember how much I paid in registration, maybe $50 or so.  I know that doesn't come close to paying him back, but at least it's something!

Next week it will be exactly 16 weeks to the Charleston Distance Run.  This is the race that prompted me to create this blog last year!  I took 16 weeks to train last year, so I'm cutting it close this year.  I know I won't be able to jump right into running 15 miles next week, so my training plan might be cut short.  I know I can do it though!  I feel like I trained hard last year, but I can train harder.  I just have to get over this injury completely.  I need to be able to run everyday and not have any signs of an injury.

The Long Road to Recovery

This has been the most awful experience of my life!  Well, that may be exaggerating, but it's a really close second.  I haven't posted in a while because there's been pretty much nothing to post about.  The injury thing leaves my life a little boring right now, and I'm generally in a depressed mood about it.  I do have some updates, though, and I might be able to better explain what's going on and how it's going to affect my summer.

I don't know exactly what is wrong with me.  I haven't seen a doctor to get a diagnosis.  I believe I have an achilles tendonitis or tendonosis or something like that.  Because I ran on this injury for over a month, long runs and all, I ended up making it a lot worse than it probably should've been.  Instead of taking a little time off to heal, I kept running and now I have been off for about 6 weeks.  I mean, I didn't even go that long during the winter without running, and I had a horrible winter of not running, lol.  So, the achilles thing turned into an ankle thing, because well all those things are connected in there and I guess all that stress on my achilles affected my ankle.  As soon as I started taking time off, the achilles pain went away, and I have just had this nagging sensation above my outer left ankle.  Dorsiflexion makes it obvious that something is wrong, and my ankle and achilles have been very stiff, particularly in the morning.

The whole time I have been off, I have been cross training.  Stationary bike and stairmaster.  Well, I decided that since I was stuck at "almost better", I was going to stop cross training all together and see if I got any better.  At the same time, I went to see a physical therapist, who is also a runner.  His name is Craig, and he is about 45 minutes away, but he offered to take a look at it for me.  He immediately told me I had really tight calves and that's not good for a healing achilles.  He sent me home with several calve stretching exercises to do twice daily and told me to ice it.  Withing 3 days, I felt 100% better...no pain in my achilles or my ankle!  Craig is amazing and I was so happy!  I decided to go for a test run, and I stretched really well, ran 1 mile, stretched again, and ran 1 more mile.  I had absolutely no pain or sensation of an inury doing the run!  I was healed!!!

Then, I went to sleep and woke up the next day.  And what happened?  I woke up with a pain in my achilles!!  **!#$*$*#*!!!  I was so heart-broken, it's ridiculous.  On the good side, I didn't have any ankle pain.  I left a message for Craig to call me back, and when he did I broke down wining and crying, lol.  I hope he couldn't tell I was crying a little, but he probably did.  He told me not to worry and at least I didn't have any pain during my run.  He suggested that it may take a combination of doing a lot of little things to get me all better.  He recommended some Sugoi compression socks, which I should get tomorrow.  He also recommended me running 1/4 mile at a time and walking, and slowly building it, instead of running 1 or 2 entire miles at once.  He told me not to give up and to be patient.  I felt a little better.

Well, the very next day I woke up with absolutely no pain in my achilles!  I was so excited again.  At least I only hurt for one day, lol.  Then, I made a mistake.  I decided to workout, and did 30 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 minutes on the stairmaster.  As soon as I finished the stairmaster, I realized what a mistake that machine was for me to use.  Then I realized that I had been cross-training on that thing the entire time and that was probably the reason my ankle wouldn't heal!  The stress of the stairmaster motion was hurting me the entire time and I didn't realize it until I was almost all the way healed and used it again, lol.  This has been the most difficult thing to figure out!!!

So, here is where I am.  I have another physical therapy appointment tomorrow.  I am still stretching and icing.  I'm going to wait till I have absolutely no pain for 3 consecutive days, then I'm going to do another test run, of 2 quarter-mile repeats with a walk in between.  If I wake up the next day without any achilles pain, I'm going to do it again, adding on another 1/4 mile.  I planned on starting my 16 week training plan for the CDR on May 17th, but I don't think it's going to happen, and my training plan may be cut short.  Only time will tell.