Listen while you read.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

If you run Boston...

You could never run again! When the Dr calls and says, "If you run the Boston Marathon, it could be catastrophic...you could never run again!" Would you listen and follow his advice? Attempt to put yourself in my shoes for a minute and then answer that question. I had my first Dr's appt last Thursday in which he thought that I had a hip labral tear, something that requires surgery to fix. He said I could take prescription strength anti-inflammatory to get through the pain and run the Boston Marathon, which was a little over 3 weeks away. He also ordered a preliminary MRI "just to be sure" I didn't have a hip stress fracture. I had already rested for 10 days, so I was eager to do my final long run. He assured me that once he had the results, he would call and clear me. My MRI was on Friday evening and the results were done by Saturday, but I wasn't worried about them sitting on the fax machine over the weekend, since I KNEW I had a tear and would be okay to run. So I joined my Sunday morning group of girls who agreed to run flat (his only advice at this point) and we headed out for 22 miles. I was on the slow side, but finished it. My body hurt more than normal...my muscles, but I chalked it up to them overcompensating for the injury.

On Monday, I called the Dr's office for my results. His nurse let me know that they had them, but the Dr wanted to actually see the films which he would have by Tuesday. I was a little frustrated. I planned my normal afternoon run with my running partner, Scheri, for Tuesday and was even talking about throwing in some speed. We were going to do 10 miles on our normal concrete path. Yikes! I received the call around 2:30pm in which he began with, "If you run Boston, you could never run again. You have a hip stress fracture." My response, "I ran 22 miles on it on Sunday." So I pondered my next steps, of course posted it on Facebook, and decided that I would keep my plans to run Boston. I will train on the elliptical and bike for the next 2 1/2 weeks, walk around on crutches to rest it as much as possible, and faithfully take the doses of calcium and vitamin D that he prescribed. It is about everything that went into it...that started so long ago. I know I could defer my entry, but I just don't feel like going through all of it again. I may regret it, but hopefully it just ends up a good memory!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Gardening, My Hip, CSAP, and Boston

Lots to talk about, so I better get started. I have been super busy, but today is officially the first day of spring break, so I decided to kick it off with blogging...finally. I also signed up for a vegetable garden class a few backs that took place today and am so happy that I went. It helped me understand so much more about planting a vegetable garden in Colorado, especially since this year I am wanting to try a new way of doing this: box gardening combined with square foot gardening. My garden space is huge and very hard to manage, so I have asked my wonderful husband to build boxes for me to make it more manageable. He has agreed. These boxes will be 3feet x 8feet, and consist of 1foot x 1foot sections, each containing one type of plant. (Look up images, as they are beautiful and interesting.) I will post some of my own once this is created in my own yard. I will also have a smaller box for picking flowers and herbs. All of this in addition to our already landscaped, not quite, 1/2 acre. It should be great. I went out and measured and will be visiting Home Depot with Marc shortly.

I am busy working on my garden, and NOT running at the moment because for the first time during my training in over three years, I am injured. I have been in denial for about two months, at least, but decided that taking this weekend off would help me more than anything. My hip flexor has been strained and no matter what I seem to do, it isn't getting better...hopefully this does the trick. Stretching it, icing it, and resting already seems to be helping. Amazingly, my limp that I have been carrying around for several weeks has already disappeared today. I'll keep up the rest until Wednesday, and then visit the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday for a shot of cortisone to finish it off.

CSAP is over and my students did fantastic. I know they did their best and that is all I can ever ask for. Of course, we don't find out the scores until August, but I can rest easy in knowing that each of us put everything we had into it, and that's better than any number.

I received the email from the Boston Marathon yesterday reminding me that the race is only one month away. It made me very excited. I went ahead and ordered my coat and a long sleeve t-shirt that I am sure I will wear more than the coat...but either way, feel privileged about the whole thing. Also happy that training is coming to an end. Next week we are doing our last back to back, Sunday and Monday (after school) since I am getting my shot on Thursday, I have to wait 48 hours until I can run again. It will be nice to taper and move into our summer training routine. Winter has been fair on us, but it is always nice to get back on the bike, in the pool, and away from the snow.
Enjoy your spring!