Running into Walls
What a struggle this past week has been. The nagging ankle pain was, indeed, made worse by forcing the 5K last weekend. Not only did I have to face the disappointment in myself on Monday morning, but also the semi-mostly-pissed off Coach Alex face - which, undoubtedly, made me feel even worse about things. Not to mention it was pouring down rain and I had a 4.5 hour drive ahead of me for work. Let's just go ahead and say was extremely grumpy to start off my week and I was the only one to blame! Monday did not get any better what with the highway closing down on me twice for rain induced accidents and no time for breakfast or lunch because I was running late from start to finish. By the end of the day, my ankle was screaming at me to stop walking around.
Unfortunately, my job is not conducive to resting an injury. And so, my week beat on with house after house measured and stair after stair climbed. By my last appointment on Wednesday I was barely able to shuffle along. I would like to publicly thank the lovely couple who insisted I use their elevator to get around and also to the property manager who drove me to building after building on a 2600 acre farm so I did not have walk - truly and deeply grateful for the small shreds of kindness I found along the way this week.
I definitely knew I was in deep shit by Wednesday and started frantically calling around to orthopedic doctors basically begging someone to take me in and get me going again. Coach Alex and O could probably commiserate over a beer about how unbearably obsessed I have been with solving this problem all week. Sorry guys.
I was able to beg my way into an appointment on Friday. I arrived at 9:30 am and left at Noon and spent about 3 minutes with the ortho doc. He knew exactly what it was (posterior tibial tendinitis) but the whole thing was very rushed. He basically told me my flat feet suck, I will probably require custom orthotics to keep running long distance and to take some Aleve and have a nice day. Sigh. I had also made an appointment for a massage with our training centers massage therapist for that afternoon. It was primarily to chill myself out about all of this, but it ended up being extremely informative and helpful. She was A-MAZE-ING. She spent an hour just working on my calves. Based on all of the statements of "Oh My" and "No Wonder" going on, I took from the session that I have immense problems which are causing other immense problems - namely, tendinitis.
This seriously could not have happened at a worse time. 8 weeks in and I was finally feeling like I was making progress, enjoying myself and mentally in the game. Not to mention that the Peachtree is in...oh...two weeks. I've gone ahead and mentally prepared myself that I may not make it to the start line and if I do, there is no guarantee I can run it well. I guess every runner experiences this at some point. Whether your are a mile-worn veteran or a new runner there will be inevitable disappointments along the way. The trick is figuring out how to climb that mental mountain and move on. Don't ask me though, because I haven't figured it out yet. Each day that goes by stuck on rest I lose a little more inspiration. I feel almost desperate to run just to halt the downward spiral into total lack of engagement.
To help with things, O kindly sat with me while I went and got re-fitted for new running shoes and waffled over inserts or no inserts for a good hour at the Trak Shak. I went with the Saucony Omni 12 with an arch support. The pain was immediately less, so I hope I made the right choice.
Still off running for the time being so if you need me, I'll be here obsessing over when this will go away and if I will ever get back in the groove. Le Sigh.
Unfortunately, my job is not conducive to resting an injury. And so, my week beat on with house after house measured and stair after stair climbed. By my last appointment on Wednesday I was barely able to shuffle along. I would like to publicly thank the lovely couple who insisted I use their elevator to get around and also to the property manager who drove me to building after building on a 2600 acre farm so I did not have walk - truly and deeply grateful for the small shreds of kindness I found along the way this week.
I definitely knew I was in deep shit by Wednesday and started frantically calling around to orthopedic doctors basically begging someone to take me in and get me going again. Coach Alex and O could probably commiserate over a beer about how unbearably obsessed I have been with solving this problem all week. Sorry guys.
I was able to beg my way into an appointment on Friday. I arrived at 9:30 am and left at Noon and spent about 3 minutes with the ortho doc. He knew exactly what it was (posterior tibial tendinitis) but the whole thing was very rushed. He basically told me my flat feet suck, I will probably require custom orthotics to keep running long distance and to take some Aleve and have a nice day. Sigh. I had also made an appointment for a massage with our training centers massage therapist for that afternoon. It was primarily to chill myself out about all of this, but it ended up being extremely informative and helpful. She was A-MAZE-ING. She spent an hour just working on my calves. Based on all of the statements of "Oh My" and "No Wonder" going on, I took from the session that I have immense problems which are causing other immense problems - namely, tendinitis.
This seriously could not have happened at a worse time. 8 weeks in and I was finally feeling like I was making progress, enjoying myself and mentally in the game. Not to mention that the Peachtree is in...oh...two weeks. I've gone ahead and mentally prepared myself that I may not make it to the start line and if I do, there is no guarantee I can run it well. I guess every runner experiences this at some point. Whether your are a mile-worn veteran or a new runner there will be inevitable disappointments along the way. The trick is figuring out how to climb that mental mountain and move on. Don't ask me though, because I haven't figured it out yet. Each day that goes by stuck on rest I lose a little more inspiration. I feel almost desperate to run just to halt the downward spiral into total lack of engagement.
To help with things, O kindly sat with me while I went and got re-fitted for new running shoes and waffled over inserts or no inserts for a good hour at the Trak Shak. I went with the Saucony Omni 12 with an arch support. The pain was immediately less, so I hope I made the right choice.
Still off running for the time being so if you need me, I'll be here obsessing over when this will go away and if I will ever get back in the groove. Le Sigh.
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