Still injured

The foot/ankle injury has been a long time coming. It first flared up when I was in England back in September. One day it started to ache, next morning, it was so swollen I literally couldn't got off the bed and had to hop to use the bathroom. Ohh well, if you know me, you know I didn't let the foot stop me from doing much I wanted to do. I dragged this foot all over London and even did a 3 mile run the last day we were there... with a fat ankle. Stupid you might say? Yes, I agree but I just really want to end my visit with a run along the Thames and I did so I'm happy.

A visit to the doctor's office... good news: nothing showed up on the X-ray... Bad news: nothing showed up on the X-ray. The doctor said we would just treat it like stress fracture (this kind of ambiguity really frustrates me) and ordered me a walking boot. Being flat out honest, I told her I was not going to wear it having a work trip scheduled two days afterwards to Toronto. The whole time in Toronto, the foot was hurting but bearable. I kept on running 4, 5 miles in the morning... it's so pretty to pass up the chance to run!

Then magically, the foot slowly got better... I started to notice a pop when I bend my ankle which never was there before the injury but who cares, if it doesn't hurt and I can keep running, I'm happy!

Everything is going so well... I started to run in my fivefingers a lot more... 3, 4 then 7 then 10. I kept on running... every morning during the week, taking Friday off to rest and whatever distance I feel like on the weekend in the woods... I'm turning into a runner. I got all my courage together and finally signed up for a marathon next March.

Great! One day after I signed up, the foot started to hurt again. I was trying to get a longish run (which ended up being only 8 miles) for the thanksgiving weekend. We already planned to go hiking with Casey's Mom on Saturday, so instead of taking Friday off. I ran every day from Monday or last Saturday to Friday. Looking back, that's 6 days of non-stop running. Even my muscles felt perfectly fine, my tendons were probably not trained up to deal with it yet. The hike on Saturday was great, I felt some familiar discomfort in my foot but nothing major. I took Sunday off driving home and visiting one of my favorite stores- Ikea :D

A new week started and I kept on running... 4 miles on Monday, my foot started to hurt a lot. I was being smart and took Tuesday off... ohh I thought I finally got older and wiser... I hopped out of bed eager to run Wednesday morning and 1 mile into the run, I knew something was not right... trying not to admit it, I made a turn to run in the woods thinking that would be better than concrete... 6 miles later, I could only limp :( No running, no pain-free walking. Doctor's visit... same no-conclusion again: nothing on the X-ray, they don't know... "let's treat it like a stress fracture" NO! I wanna know what's really going wrong! I want to know what I can do to help along the healing process!! I don't want to rest not knowing how long it needs to be!

OK, I made another PT's appointment for tomorrow and having high hopes for it. I know rest is still going to be on the top list of what he prescribes, but I'm not ready yet to accept that with peace :( I'm getting frustrated and really stir-crazy!! What's wrong with my foot! The negative thoughts kept going... ohh, I can't run the jingle-bell 3mile tomorrow, ohh I probably have to skip my FIRST EVER marathon... I'm going to not be able to run as fast or long, I'm such a whimp... blah blah ALRIGHT, Wendy! Stop! Life goes on! C'mon!

Everything in life is a challenge. You can accept the challenge to improve. Or you can bask and distract yourself with success. It’s up to you. After all, sport is about personal growth. In the mountains you have the opportunity to challenge yourself beyond any means available in daily life.