Heartland Series Training, Week 8

What an up and down week.  Here is how it played out:

Monday:  1 hour of water jogging.  Still not doing any intensity till the dr gives me the okay.  I found my favorite lady, and we talked and jogged for an hour.  She makes the time fly by.  We know each other, but we are really getting to know each other so much deeper.  She is my idol and I love her dearly.  She has been through some tough stuff by herself, and I have so much respect for her.

Tuesday:Strength training.  I made up three round of different exercises that my coach has given me in the past.    Kind of having fun being creative.  I typically don't do many arm exercises, so I am trying incorporate lots of arms too, as well as abs and lower abs.

Wednesday: Day off.  Visit to Ortho.  I was prepared for so many things.  I was very thorough with the nurse.  The Dr came in, read the notes, and quickly told me that I needed an MRI.  Of course the x rays taken at my doctor's office were inconclusive.  He did see what the radiologist saw, as far as what looked like a stress fracture, however, nothing hurt upon examination and I have had no bruising or swelling in that area.  He basically said it could be one of three things: stress fracture, stress reaction, or soft tissue injury.  We needed the MRI done before he could diagnose.  He assured me that my insurance would most certainly cover it, since it was affecting my quality of life (unlike what my GP had told me).  He also said that he would help me formulate a good plan for moving forward.  He really has changed since I saw him in 2014 for my shin injury.  I went ahead and picked up my bib for this weekend, knowing that it was probably a lost cause.  At least I got a couple of cute shirts!

Thursday: 1 hour of water jogging.  My phone rang around 11 am from the Ortho Dr's office.  I was shocked to hear back so soon, especially since I was told Friday, probably monday before I would hear back.  NO stress fracture, NO stress reaction, NOTHING!  So the very thing I was afraid of, no clue what is going on, and no plan to move forward happened.  Don't get me wrong, I am overjoyed to not be confined to a boot for 6 weeks, but  I love a good plan and without one, I am lost.  I was advised to go back to anti inflammatories, ice 4 times a day, and ease back into running.  I am going to admit, I am scared.  Scared that this is something I need to respect more than just drugs and ice.  I guess the MRI wouldn't lie, and I just have to trust.  I also had a session of body torture with my favorite bringer of pain at Body First.  We decided to stay in the pool for my long run this weekend and again friday, but to try some easy miles on the road Sunday morning with the max being 2 miles.  No race this weekend, which I had already figured, but possibly my half on March 26th, as long as I took it super duper easy.  Again, if ANY pain at ANY time during running, I am to stop, and we will re evaluate.  I know I have enough of a base built up that I could run slowly any of the half marathons, but I want to be super careful about this.  It truly will be a game time decision.

A little park time with my mini me

Friday: 1 hour of water jogging.  I so love the pool, but I so dread doing long runs in the pool by myself.  I am praying my running partner will join me sunday.

Saturday:  Race day 2 mile + 10 K.  I wanted to just stay home and be sad, BUT i also wanted to support my running partner, since technically we signed up for this race together.  She is so supportive of me and everything I do, so it is my turn to return the favor.  It was raining lightly when we left, but that was okay because there were tons of coffee shops to hide in during the race.  I had SO much fun cheering her on in the 2 miler and the 10 K!!!!

I had planned on doing strength again today, but since my hubby decided to rip the carpet up in our master bed room about the time I had planned on strength training, that changed.  No big deal, hopped on the bike trainer and did an hour of constant pedaling.  Tried to up the intensity a few times, but my foot said no.  

Sunday: Planned 2 SLOW miles on the road and a long run (as long as I can stand it and not loose my mind) in the pool.  First of all, the 2 miles on the road was AMAZING! I had read a blog about an injured runner that has what I think i have wrong (see my blog post from yesterday about my idea), and they had claimed the only thing that helped them was going back to minimal shoes for every day and for running.  I got my kinveras out to see if that would help and WHOA, no pain, even during the day just walking around.  I was AMAZED at how much it helped me.  I didn't take any anti inflammatories this morning and was able to walk around the grocery store and run with 0 amount of pain.  I am still shocked and waiting for the pain to show back up.  Even yesterday, just walking around the race and doing stuff afterwards gave me that achy pain.  Today, nothing, nada, 0!!!!!

Mel and I headed to the pool after my 2 miler to jog in a square in the water till we lost our minds.  We made it for 1 hour and 30 minutes before we both started getting loopy.  I will take it!  It takes us about 1 hour 40 minutes to get in 10 miles, so we are pretty close to that time running.  I have no clue how many miles we actually ran, but we both felt pretty tired afterwards.  I am SO glad she went with me.  I am not so sure I could do that by myself.  I will have to long run in the pool again next week, but maybe i can do some of my long run on the land and some in the pool.

Total miles=2

I will be honest, I am not missing rushing home to get a run in or getting up super early to run.  I miss running for sure, but am enjoying having a looser schedule.  It is kind of nice getting my work out done during the day over my lunch hour for sure.  The only problem is stella.  Running is not just for me, but for her sanity as well.

She was pretty darn happy to be out on the road, even if it was like 100% humidity today.  I am still a little scared about over doing it.  While I am going to live in my Kinvaras from now on, I don't want to be stupid and hurt this by running too much too soon. I am going to discuss with Doug and my coach how to safely proceed.  I want to be super duper smart about this. 

Have a great week and run some miles for me!!!!