I Will Runnnnn Again!

They say you should have a mantra when you run.  Something you can chant and repeat when the going is hard.  And if you're coming back from a big break, let's be honest, the running is ALWAYS hard.  Things are going great though.  Little by little, bit by bit, today I ran 4.75 miles.  During one of the more challenging portions of the run (there were so many, I'm not sure I could select the specific one) Lara Fabian's "I Will Love Again" came on my trusty old Nomad.   Now, if you run, you know that your brain does whatever it can to fill the time and keep you from realizing what you're doing is completely insane.  My brain, doing what it does best, decided that with a few simple changes in the lyrics, the song becomes a mantra.  I just want you to know, old busted Achilles tendon - "I will run again.  Even if it takes a lifetime to get over you, I will run again, stronger than before."

The Highs and Lows

I know.  It's like I just disappeared.  Another abandoned blog in the internet wilderness.

Well, I'm back, sort of.  Things were looking up but one very normal day in June I went for a run and after 0.2 miles, there was a pop.  I've never had a pop.  It scared me a lot.  I broke down after that.  My doctor determined that I was past what PT could do for me.  PT is for acute not chronic conditions I was told.  I was offered a lot of options.  Many of these options were drugs.  There is some science to suggest anti-depressants could help with the joint stiffness and fibromyalgia medication could dull the nerve pain. These medications have a lot of side effects.  A lot.  So the question then became what length would I go to just to run again.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so I never took the drugs.  I was on a two month wait for the orthopaedic surgeon after that.

My first appointment with the ortho was Aug. 10.  I went to Columbus Orthopaedic.  They were all highly recommended doctors and I was told they were the absolute best.  My doctor specializes in foot and ankle.  He said that he wanted to see an MRI, but he was thinking surgery.  After seeing my MRI the ruling was that my tendon was not all that bad, but because of the duration of my injury, I could still have surgery.  The surgery he recommended was gastro recession or "muscle/tendon lengthening". 

I had a trip planned in September.  We decided it would be best to wait until after my trip because no one wants to be in a cast at Disneyland!  In the meantime, he suggested I take up an aggressive stretching routine.  They have a PT clinic inside their ortho clinic, so I was sent over to Rehab at Work to learn my stretches.  After 2 months of stretching, I decided to try running.

It's been a month, and I am up to running 3 miles.  I am also spinning.  I have minimal pain, but I can tell it's not healed.  Yesterday at my appointment the doctor told me if I was questioning if surgery was right for me, then surgery was not right for me.  He had me go back to Rehab at Work to learn a new set of exercises.  He believes that I can heal on my own in 4-6 months if I can keep my leg muscles loose and build up my hip and calf strength.  It takes almost an hour a day to do all my stretches, exercises, and icing, but if I can avoid surgery I have to tell myself it is worth the time investment.

I signed up for a 5K this Saturday.  Wish me luck!

RT10 5K

I made the long trip back home for the 5th annual RT10 run.  On a day when Starkville had 4 tornadoes, I was lucky to already be in Arkansas by the time the sirens blew.  I have done RT10 twice now, the first year and the 5th year.  I must saw, it doesn't seem like much has changed with the race.  Sure, there have been improvements with some aspects of the race, but in the end, it's still a wad of people "running" through the beautiful campus I spent such happy years at.  I would have enjoyed the actual race more if it hadn't presented such peril.  That said, it was a windy but nice day in Oklahoma with my BFF and in the end, isn't that what makes it a good run?

The Best I'll Ever Do

I signed up for a local race only because it went right by my house.  Amazingly, I got 11th!  Let's not talk about how many people were in it.  Returning to the 5K has been hard.  I look at the times and think that just a year ago I was 3 minutes faster.  It is almost a year now since I noticed the pain starting.  A year.  What a difference a year makes!  I wasn't getting 11th then of course (ha), but I was definitely running faster and more confident.  I just have to keep telling myself "at least I'm running."

Run for Hope

I said last year I would never do this race again.  I guess technically I didn't do it again.  I did the 5K instead of the Half.  Let me tell you - I have no idea how I ever did the Half; 5K was enough.  Hill after hill I kept wondering how I would make it.  It really shows me how far I've gone down since last year struggling with AT.  In the end, it was a great day for a run and once it's all over, as always, I was glad I did it.

New Year, New Me?

Since the year flipped over, I haven't been to PT.  I need to be really hurt now that I haven't met my deductible!  Life without the PT safety net is scary.  I guess it takes a while to get over the mindset that you are somehow broken or fragile.  Running over Christmas was hard.  The cold weather and dirt roads of home made for achy calves and weird twinges of pain.  I was convinced I had ripped my tendon in half.

I have two new friends on my runs now - stability shoes and a GPS watch.  I can hardly give up running now!  I finally went to Fleet Feet and got fitted for shoes.  While I would not have thought I was having problems with my neutral shoes, the expert insisted they were all wrong and put me in a stability shoe.  Despite being a supinater, I am now running in Nike Structures.  They came in pink, so how could I refuse?  I also have fancy Superfeet inserts for them.  What surprised me more than needing stability shoes and inserts was that I had to buy a size 11.  11!  I wear a 10.  Always have.  But I will admit, my toes have all kinds of room to roam.  My pedicure thanks me.

The GPS running watch is dream.  I finally caught up with the times I guess.  Sure, I bought technology that is so last year, but it was on sale like it was so last year.  I am now the proud owner of a Garmin 305 Forerunner.  It has a lot of functions, and I admit that I don't like the fact that it doesn't default to a clock when turned off.  Otherwise, I am more than pleased with it.  I wish I'd bought one sooner.

Despite all these new toys, I am still not running like I'd hoped.  I have finally conceded it will take longer than I ever thought and it might never be the same.  I picked up spinning and went back to swimming.  Triathlon here I come I guess.