Rest

After tomorrow, it'll be a week since my last run. My foot is not feeling great. When I put my weight on my left foot, it hurts. Hal diagnosed me with a stress fracture over the phone, but I know that I need to really find out what's going on. And on top of that, almost everyone has urged me to go and see my real podiatrist to get a "real diagnosis" and possible an x-ray. So tomorrow morning I'm going back to the podiatrist to see what's actually going on.

It'll be nice to find out what is happening and get some direction on what I should be doing versus what I think I should be doing based on what my friends at Wikipedia tell me. :)

I'm trying to not get too disappointed. I know there's a few lessons to learn here (don't increase your mileage more than 10% for starters), but I'm still feeling bummed out.

At least in a few hours I'll know more of what's going on. In the meantime, it's more time in the boot, more arnica, more rest and more anti-inflammatory meds.

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Assessing the Damage

Saturday was mostly a rest day for me. I mean I was on my feet- I kinda have to be just to move around and stuff- but I wasn't running, which I wasn't scheduled to do (until today). But I also didn't do my cross-training. I haven't actually been that good about the cross-training although I am using my bike more, which is good.

My foot has gotten worse. It hurts to put a lot of pressure on it, which means even when I'm walking I'm feeling some sort of pain. The other great thing is that I'm limping a bit, so I look like an idiot. Okay, maybe not an idiot, but at times, I can't walk all that well either.

Tomorrow's 9-mile run is up in the air and that makes me feel awful. Especially how proud and accomplished I felt after last week's 8-mile run (which interestingly enough, may be the cause for the stress fracture) and how important I feel it is to stay on track with my training.

So for now, I'm just taking it easy, hanging out with Amy, Katie & Steve and we'll just see what tomorrow brings me

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All About Amy!

Amy's in town and I'm soooo excited for her visit.


(ps- this picture was taken during a photo session where we would make up pretend scenarios and then make an associated face. this was "pretend you're saying goodbye and won't see each other for a long time).

We always have a blast together and I miss living with her, living near her, hanging out on a more regular basis, blah blah blah. The list goes on really.

Last week Amy said that she'd do the Dublin Marathon with me. I know at first I was all "I don't want anyone to do this with me. It needs to be my own thing." But my tune has changed. Mainly because I know I'm going to need all the support I can get. And having company for 26.2 miles is an amazing gift. And with all the trouble Amy & I get into, I can't even begin to imagine what will happen to us along 26.2 miles of Dublin.

So today we went for a run. 35-minute workout of 3 min run/2 min walk 7x. As with most things Amy & I do together, it was fun, which really isn't that surprising. While I was running with her, I realized how lucky and fortunate I am to have her be willing to do the marathon with me. Hoo f'n ray.

My shins were feeling mostly okay. I have been icing and wearing the boot on a more regular basis. But my left foot hasn't gotten any better and may in fact be getting worse. It feels worse when I put any sort of pressure on it. And when I'm wearing my sneakers or have anything on the top of my foot, it feels like maybe the shoe I'm wearing is too small. But that's not the case.

I called Hal to talk with him about it and he mentioned that it may be a stress fracture. This would suck for a lot of reasons, but one of them being that the only thing you can do to make a stress fracture better is to totally rest. Some sources (all online, of course) say three weeks. Some say three months (absolutely not happening). Regardless, I'm just going to take it easy and see how I do. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to not do the 9-mile run Amy & I are scheduled for on Sunday.

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