Where have I been?
I was really trying to keep up with this blog and did so for quite a few months, but I think I just saw a notice that said my last post was in June of 08....Really? Did I not post a thing in all of 09? Well, thank you Slugline for reminding me that someone might actually pay attention to this thing.
I will not attempt to catch you all up on the last year. Suffice it to say that I had a pretty low period where I wasn't enjoying the running much. My miles dropped and I started to gain weight. Not a lot, but I noticed it. I thought having a goal race in mind would help me to get things back on track and I picked up a new running buddy. I registered for the OBX marathon excited that it would be my first 26.2. Bad idea. While I completely loved running with my new buddy, she is much faster than I am and I ran with her too much. We didn't increase the miles too quickly ( a common runner mistake that leads to injury) but I was pushing my pace for most of my runs. Before I knew it, I was injured.
I had a pretty good case of shin splints. I tried running with the injury for a while and that didn't work. My darling brother reveled in telling me that when he was in high school and had shin splints he didn't get better until he took 3 weeks off from running. I couldn't do that....I had a marathon to train for! I would try taking a few days (3) off in a row. I would ice my leg every few hours. I would use ibuprofen. I put on a compression bandage. I would feel a little better. Then I would try to run and it would all fall apart. It got to the point where it was excruciating to run and hurt just to walk....time to see the doctor. She confirmed my fears. I didn't have shin splints after all. I had the dreaded stress fracture. My buddy told me I had time to heal and still train for the marathon, but I knew I didn't and if I attempted it I might end up in worse condition.
Around this time my husband started getting serious about wanting to shed some pounds. We joined a gym together. I could only use the stationary bikes and weight machines. It killed me to watch the other people on the treadmills while I slugged through 45 minutes on the bike with my aircast on. I gained more weight. No matter how hard I worked on that bike and lifted those weights I couldn't shed the pounds I gained. I realized that there is just no substitute for running when it comes to burning calories. It was exhilerating and scary the first time that I was allowed to walk on the treadmill with my cast on. I followed my rehab directions exactly as my doctor had given them to me. It was hard because by this time my love for running had been rekindled but I could do nothing about it.
Slowly but surely I got back to running. I have remained injury free since restarting and I am building my mileage very slowly. The good news is that I have continued to keep my gym membership. I DO NOT get on those bikes, but I do continue to weight train and work my core a couple of times a week. I am more fit than before I was injured and the wieght training apppears to be helping my running. I am considering training for another marathon, but I want to build my base slowly before I make that decision. I am hoping it will help keep me from ending up back on that bike again. I hope that when I have another period where running doesn't seem as fun any more I will look back on last year and realize that this too shall pass.
2010 miles = 97
Posted in: on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at at 8:59 AM
