+10%

Between being sick (two weeks combating a sinus infection and still going) and momentarily terrified that I had managed to hurt my right leg again, I've been inspired into doing some Internet research.

I know, I know. Internet research typically yields crazy stuff. If you're by careful, your sinus infection may be a combination of pregnancy and cancer.

So, in my research, I found that a common theme was slowly upping distance and pace to the tune of ~10% a week. I've been working on this for about three weeks now and I have to say, I'm a believer.

It's slow going, but I don't feel like I'm dying at the end of my runs anymore and I'm not in pain! I can tell that my endurance is improving ever so slightly, too. Right now my pace is unchanged, but I'm okay with that since my goal is to simply finish the half.

Zoo Zoom 5k

I originally started this post on Saturday.  Since then, life's been a little hectic (with a hurricane and all!) and I totally forgot about it. So, here goes!

On Saturday morning, Ricky and I woke up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to participate in the Baton Rouge Zoo Zoom 5k and Fun Run.  Since I'm not technically supposed to be running any further than two miles right now, Ricky and I did the half-mile fun run.

Yep.

We woke up at 6:30 to run a half-mile.  We're not completely crazy; we had a good cause.  His best friend's five year old was running the half-mile: her first race! She ran the entire thing and we finished in about six or seven minutes.

Starting my Saturday morning with the run was great; I felt really energized for the rest of the day.  It, however, highlighted the fact that I've got a lonnnnng way to go before I'm ready for the Disney Marathon in 2014.

One week!

After three super long months, next Monday I can start to incorporate jogging into my routine!

I never thought I'd be excited to start jogging again. I mean, I live where the humidity is 100% almost all the time as the heat index can get over 100! But I am. I really am.


This week is my last week walking and waiting three months hasn't been as bad as I thought. Swimming really helped, but I'm ready to start thinking about things like Warrior Dash and the Color Run! Besides, these bad boys are ready to go faster:

Cleared for takeoff!!!

I had my fourth orthopedist appointment this morning and I got fantastic news!

I'm cleared to run again!



Okay, running is a strong word to use. I'm cleared for slowly slowly slowly ramping up to jogging then running. But the good news is that I can do weight bearing activities!!

Spillway Classic!

I've been failing at blogging, I know, but the swimming thing is going really well. My next orthopedist appointment is in a few weeks and, theoretically, I'll be cleared to run again!!!

Now.

Today was the 25th annual Spillway Classic. While I couldn't run it, my friends could! I drove them to the spillway and documented the entire thing! The trail was rated as a 9/10 overall and the mud gauntlet was rated as a 12/10. The mud was apparently waist high!!

Before and After:

Vacation Blues

I should probably do a better job at posting here regularly.  But I think about it and get distracted by shiny things! The most recent shiny thing being my family's mini-vacation this past weekend.

We went to Seaside, FL.  This is the town where they filmed The Truman Show and it looks almost identical to the movie! I enjoyed the trip, a lot, but it rained both days we were there.  So as a result of beach vacationing, I've learned the following two things:

• Even though your leg doesn't hurt at the moment, a 500 yard dash in the rain will make it hurt for a few days.
• The beach is awesome, and the sand feels great, but prolonged walking hurts a lot in the short-term and aches in the slightly-longer term.

My leg aches today, probably about a four/five but I'm really resisting getting on my crutches.

In better news, swimming is still going great. I just bought a new pull buoy and paddles to up the arm workout aspect of swimming.  I also got a fantastic compliment last night that really made me beam: my backstroke looked very smooth!  I'm picking up the buoy and paddles from Katey on Sunday, so I'll report back on those next week!

Off Crutches!

I went to the orthopedist on Friday for a four-week checkup.  I've been using the crutches 90% of the time and my leg doesn't hurt when I walk on it... most of the time.  Based on my x-rays (which I now have in my possession!) and my physical exam, I'm cleared to get off the crutches unless the pain gets too high.

This makes me happy as hobbling around on crutches is annoying.  My arms are definitely more toned but I dislike not being able to open doors, carry things, etc.  The stinking things are in the backseat of my car, just in case.  To avoid having to use them again, I've been stopping whatever I'm doing and resting any time my leg starts to consistently ache. It seems to work.

On the swimming frontier, I swam a mile today! I definitely need to work on sticking to a routine with the swimming since it takes more motivation to drive to the rec, change, and swim than it does to change at work and go running before coming home.  I also need to work on my flip turns.  Mid-turn, I wound up with what felt like a pint of water in my sinuses.  25 yards later, my head felt like it was melting from the inside out. I've forgotten how much chlorine burns your mucous membranes!

Only two more months until I can start running again! Then Warrior Dash & Color Run! :)

Just Keep Swimming

Today's been a chlorine-based day. First I hung out at the pool in my apartment complex to work on my tan. Then, I went and swam half a mile at the gym.  I need to figure out something to do mentally while I swim; counting strokes, breaths, and yards will get old soon.

As an aside, I have to walk into the rec; if I go in on crutches, I can't swim. Safety and all.  This doesn't bother me too much; I spend the majority of the day on crutches and the distance from car to pool isn't great. Today I noticed that as I was doing flip turns, I was pushing off with my right foot.  No pain at all then, but my shin was definitely tingling in the area of at least one of the fractures as I walked to the car.

Hopefully this is my last week on crutches!

Gone Swimming!

I went for my first swim yesterday! It went well, especially considering that I hung up my Speedo in 2007. Since it's been a while since my last swim-based workout, I looked at my notes from those workouts (I really don't know why I keep these things) and decided that maybe I wasn't quite up to 70 laps of the pool.

A quick Internet search provided a solution: 100 Swimming Workouts. One deep breath, reality check ("Amanda, you're not ready to jump back in at an advanced level"), and click later - a workout! I scribbled it onto my hand in Sharpie for reference in the pool.

Another quick Internet search later revealed that to equate one mile running, I'd only have to swim 1/3 of a mile. If swimming wasn't already my choice of recovery cardio, it would have been after learning that tidbit! The first beginning swimming workout was 600 yards, exactly 1/3 of a mile.

I forgot the band portion of my heart rate monitor in the car, so I didn't track my heart rate for the swim. However, it felt like it does when I was doing interval training; therefore, I'm only going to assume good things!

Swimming Workout Day 1: (My comments)
2x50 freestyle warmup
4x25 freestyle - count the strokes (22 strokes/lap)
4x50 freestyle - :30 rest between
4x25 freestyle - count the strokes (22 strokes/lap)
2x50 freestyle cooldown

Temporarily Derailed!

The initial post for this blog should be awesome and related to how awesome I'm doing with the training and sticking to it.

But it's not.

I was doing awesome, sticking to the training, eating better, etc... for a pretty decent amount of time. I'd gotten myself to a consistent 13 minute/mile pace and was considering increasing my distance marginally. However, this plan was derailed by my orthopedist, Dr. R.

About six weeks ago, I started to have very sharp pains in my right leg after running. My usual post-running routine (wrap, ice, elevate) wasn't working to alleviate the pain.  My right ankle was swelling at random intervals. There were days at work that I didn't want to drink anything because I dreaded having to go to the bathroom.  I took two weeks off of running, thinking that it was just shin splints gone wrong.  After the two weeks, I was mostly back to normal (i.e., the pain level was tolerable) and I decided to go for an easy run.

Bad. Idea.

The next day, I could barely walk. I set up an appointment with my PCP who promptly referred me to my new orthopedist, Dr. R.  After x-rays and a very painful exam I was duly informed that I have at least one but potentially three stress fractures.  Two are located on my tibia and there is a third one potentially near my ankle (which would explain the random swelling).

Dr. R informed me that I'm off of running for three months until my leg heals and even then, I will have to gradually build back up to where I was.  In the mean time, I'm taking up swimming as that, and cycling, are really my only two options now.  And I'm on crutches. :(