My Garden

I am almost done "building" it, the garden of course. I have been in the process of adding boxes to the gigantic garden this year, in order to make it more manageable. I have two boxes in and one to go, which I hope to have done tomorrow. I also decided I was going to stain the fence around the garden to make everything look absolutely beautiful. In June, when Black Forest Mulch opens, we will have two loads of mulch brought in for around the boxes and fill in the flower beds with the rest. Now all that we need to do is plant our cold weather vegetables and wait until May 15th to transfer our starters. Very exciting.

"You have a Hip Labral Tear..."

and "the femoral neck stress fracture is still showing up on your MRI." It has been about 10 hours and although I was trying to fight it, every second today, it finally hit: I am totally freaking out! I am not quite sure what to do, so I decided blogging was a good idea for now. I guess the real answer is, there isn't much I can do and that is what is so stressful and so frustrating. Searching the internet led me to the picture of what I will have to wear to sleep post-op. There is plenty more that I will not include in this post. On Friday, after my arthrogram, I tested out my "balance" on my right leg again, just by trying to stand on it. I still couldn't. I try every day, and I never can. I knew it was a tear this whole time, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, that pain I was feeling was the stress fracture, but now I don't think so.

I was expecting the news, so I had a list of questions prepared. My kidneys (because I have kidney stones) have been hurting with the increase of calcium, so I asked him about that. He said to take it down a bit until they felt better. I also wanted to know about my post-Boston plan. I am still running Boston. The tear doesn't change my mind about Boston and the Dr. agreed that the tear shouldn't affect that, the stress fracture should have. He said he wouldn't need to do another MRI post-Boston because he felt that me getting surgery would ultimately make me stop running and rest the stress fracture; therefore, healing it. He told me I needed to go on crutches immediately following Boston. In fact, he warned me that I would WANT them. (I can't imagine wanting them right now, except after my arthrogram on Thursday, I couldn't walk AT ALL, and did WANT them...as much as I hate those things.) So I may have them waiting for me at the finish line. Pretty sad.

My plan as of right now. Call Dr. Philippon in Vail, CO, on Monday and find out how soon I can get in. He is one of few Dr.s that perform this surgery and I am hoping it doesn't take forever to get this done. I have a swim date planned with Scheri on Monday...to start preparing for my summer sport. I will be swimming a lot. She is a good friend, and planned for us to ride the recumbent bikes and swim. (This is supposedly what I will be able to do after - maybe.) Writing has helped, so thanks for reading and listening.

Easter Weekend

I had a super productive weekend...cooking with my "meal makers" group and now officially have 10 frozen meals, did all of the laundry, worked in the garden, washed the car, and cleaned out the garage! I decided that crutches were like a job, just for Monday through Friday. I was in some pain last night, but seemed to ward it off today. Not sure why I feel it in the middle of the night so much, but it seems to be getting less and less frequent. Anyways, back to how productive I was-

Marc is visiting his family this weekend, and I usually like to keep busy to make the time pass quickly. Plus it is exciting to have a couple of days warm enough to clean out the car, which leads to the garage. I am trying to get my garden boxes completely done by the end of next weekend...oh ya and I started staining the garden fence too. I will post pictures when the yard starts growing in.

Quick running update: two weeks until Boston. Arthrogram, including 2nd MRI, is this Thursday. I did my long run on the elliptical this last weekend - 2 hours worth, felt like a lifetime. Thought about secretly hitting the trail today...just for a few miles, but didn't.

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!

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!

Two and a Half More Weeks

Every teacher that has to deal with CSAP begins the inevitable countdown until the big day. I know that my students have been taught everything, but then there is the comfort level for them. As I was running this last, I was asked if it was like a marathon, and I answered, "Actually, yes in a way it is!"

The students learn all year. This is the training phase. Month after month of learning. Then with about a month to go, we "practice" or pretend, kind of like visualizing race day. The students and I try to anticipate any questions they may have ahead of time, so come test day, they are all set. Then, the week before, we relax, so that that they aren't all worn out right before they start, that would be the taper. Right now I am in the practice or pretend stage which is a little more pressure on me and little less on the students. As the teacher, my brain begins to race on what have I told them, what have I forgotten (of course I remember all of these in the middle of the night and thus why I am awake at 4:00am), what can I tell them to be better prepared, or more relaxed? I truly believe that CSAP reflects what kind of a teacher I am...if the student has done their part: come to school each day ready to learn and participated actively. This year's class is actually a little excited to take it, so I hope that confidence comes through.

My running has been coming along. I am up to 50+ miles this week with a long run of 22 on Sunday. This last weekend, I did a 10M on Saturday, 13M on Sunday, and 15M on Monday since it was a holiday. It was a nice build-up and it felt better each day. Since we are doing the 50M this year, we are tackling some back to backs for longer distance. We will also get in a 26M in the next two weeks. I haven't began swimming yet this year, but will start soon. Cycling has taken a back burner but will move up in priority soon. I start lifting again and am feeling ready to start balancing out the exercise after all of this CSAP stuff, during spring break. It is going to be a fun year competing...I shouldn't even use those words in the same sentence, because I am not sure I am feeling very competitive. Pray for my students the 2nd and 3rd weeks of March, in case I don't write between now and then. It could be busy!

Stressed Out...Doesn't Begin to Say it!

I have so much going on right now. I only have about 3 minutes to write, so I'll go fast. I am on day 4 of antibiotics for a sinus infection. Started as a cold, but if you know me, you know that my colds don't last long, because they inevitably turn into sinus infections, and then last forever...or until I go to the doctor. So I had a few sleepless nights. Those few sleepless nights turned into a few more because at school we have been going through a new process called E & R. Let me explain. We will paid for our performance now. As a teacher, this means our student's achievement, yes including CSAP scores, and evaluations among other things.

Today, I have a formal observation to add to the list of pulling together all sorts of data, putting together all sorts of other data, there's always more data, and then, I am trying to train for Boston in the meantime. Scheri is on vacation this week, perfect timing, because I haven't ran once since my 18 miler on Sunday. I will hit the gym tonight. I will race with Halee on Saturday and then Scheri gets back on Sunday and I believe I will be held accountable with running and not just teaching anymore. Motherhood, oh ya, I have been trying to keep up in the evening with that, but last night I worked late at school and came home with enough time to grade some midyear assessments WITH Marc. Thank goodness the girls are at an age where they would rather play with each other than us. We hung out for a bit and hit the hay early. Only to wake up at 5am to head off to Safeway to get a lottery ticket for my probability lesson today. Wow, that was a quick run down. Gotta go. No time to waste.