Slowly, very slowly, I am feeling improvement. I proceed forward, however timidly, like a young deer setting foot out in an open field. I know I am vulnerable to another backwards spiraling. I just can’t afford that. I take two step forward, and hold my breath…
It’s early in the morning. I sit in my bed, sipping a cup of coffee and easing into my day. My morning reading consists of several SPAM messages in email, and only a few new FB posts since I last checked in. Combined, the the two capture only a few minutes of my time. I reach for my book and read a few pages. However, I am quickly irritated with the character for carrying a pack load in excess. How many pages will it take for her to get a clue? Knowing that this is part of her journey offers little to ease my annoyance.
The book soon returns to my bedside.
Outside, I hear the footsteps of a runner. THAT, I think, is what I’d like to do with my morning lull. But I know better.
It’s been a week since my last run; a teaser of sorts. Long enough to remind me of how much I love running, yet just enough to remind me that my body had not been fairing well since the end of our backpacking trip.
The onset of pain after my return to 8 long hours of sitting at my desk, rather than during a week of trekking through the backcountry, is proof that our bodies are not meant for sitting for extended periods of time. They are meant to move.
Sadly, I’ve resorted to swallowing NSAIDs morning and night for coming up on a week now. Just enough to stop the sciatic pain shooting down my leg, but not enough to fully resolve the issue.
I don’t dare run until my latest pain is at bay and my body is pain free once more. One feeble attempt to raise my left leg, as if running, tells me I’d be a fool to give it a go.
And so, I wait…
You know how, when you take on a new hobby or sport, you can sometimes get all gun-ho-let’s-go about it? It’s easy to do. Perhaps you stick with it. Perhaps you get burnt out. OR perhaps you take it to the next level, and the next, and the next until…you get injured. There is such thing as too much of a good thing.
Let’s say it’s a sport we are speaking of. Maybe, after you body scolds you for overdoing it, you give up your new-found love. Maybe you make adjustments and return to the sport with a wiser, more balanced, approach. OR maybe you ignore your body’s complaints, tell it to man-up, and continue what you’re doing.
We’ve all done it at one point or another. For me, my plans for the Boston to Big Sur Challenge took priority over the wiser, more balanced approach to running. A careful look at my exercise log reveals many entries where I complained of discomfort and/or pain (although mild) in my right ankle. And although I don’t regret moving forward with my [possibly] once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something truly fabulous, I wonder if a change earlier in my training might have prevented me from having to break from running for so long.
It isn’t always easy to discern impending injury from the little aches and pains of taking on a new sport or, in my case, taking marathon training up to the next level. Things most likely would have been different if these little complaints were more obviously signs of impending doom.
Now, with no reason to push through, I find myself backing off from running with only the mildest of complaint when, on my bike, I clearly feel the sore, fatigued muscular complaint of my low back. I know that my prior injuries to the area — the automobile accident (rear ending) of 2006 and bulged disc injury during my 2nd pregnancy — leave the area more vulnerable to subsequent injuries. Still, I focused on the ankle even though I felt, deep down, that there was nothing wrong at all with my ankle.
And…was it warranted?
[Read more…]
Oh, how I have missed you. Although we have visited briefly in the past weeks, it seems like forever since we have really spent any quality time together. Believe me, the separation has left me feeling discontented.
I am sure that you are aware that, in your absence, I have been spending a lot of time with cycling and yoga. Please, don’t worry about them. I have plenty of love to go around. They have grown to be great friends however, my relationship with them is nothing like what you and I have had.
In spite of our deeply-connected past, I am cautious to just pick up where we left off. You hurt me once. No! You hurt me TWICE. I can’t afford to make the same mistake again.
If I was to put my finger on what went wrong, I’d have to say that we simply took a good thing too far in too short a period of time. Maybe I asked too much of you. Maybe you asked too much of me. It does no good to place blame.
For the time being, let’s not rush to take our shoes off; sexy footwear can come later. We need to take it slow. If we keep our communication honest, and expectations reasonable, I think we might have a good chance of making this a life-long thing.
No matter how this turns out, please know that you have been, and always will be, my first love.
Sincerely yours,
Juls
A few of you readers may remember that I once called myself a runner: a distance runner. Sadly, the tendonitis in the posterior tibial tendon of my right foot has continued to ail me. Once again, it’s not a lot of “pain” but it’s enough to keep me from anything more than weekly (if that) test runs.
Since the “discomfort,” as I like to call it, is still ongoing 2 months after completing the Boston to Big Sur (B2BS) Challenge, I sent a message to the sports medicine physician to provide an update. I reported: I’ve continued to need the NSAID 1-2 times per day and, although I have been cycling and doing yoga, I have not been able to resume running. I asked him if this met with his expectations for my recovery. His initial response was noncommittal: A series of questions, and an offer to recheck or refer to physical therapy (PT). I provided additional clarification, noting that running was not the only cause of my current issue. From balance poses during yoga to walking, or simply moving my foot while seated at my desk (or pushing the accelerator during driving), I have continued to experience a mild to moderate level of discomfort.
The physician confirmed my suspicion, that overuse tendonitis takes (many) months to heal, and urged me to be patient. He also recommended icing this tendon which wraps around the back of my ankle and attaches medially at the midfoot, stressed that I avoid going barefoot, and urged me to continue (oops) wearing good arch support for walking and running.
I sort of forgot that I had tossed out his recommendation when I felt my ankle hitting up against the heel of the my traditional running shoe. That wasn’t discomfort, that was pain. But when I tried running in my VFFs, I didn’t feel that same pain so I’d made the switch and proceeded with caution. I guess we can see where that got me.
This correspondence came at the end of my work day. It was the day I’d set aside to run at lunch but, as usual, that didn’t go as planned. Of course I only had my VFFs with me. I never even considered running shoes. I trekked homeward for shoes and a run on the streets nearby.