Game On!

I went back to the ortho on Wednesday to hear the verdict. Truthfully, I was thinking not a stress fracture, as I had zero pain doing a fairly hard bike workout and just standing on the right leg was causing no pain. However, I continued to feel some pain around the ankle which I think is the tibialis anterior's tendon that is inflamed. Swimming--no problems. Biking, no problems. Elliptical--no problems, but I hadn't tried running.

Ortho walks into the exam room with the bone scan reading (I had brought along the pictures), and he shakes my hand and says, "You don't have a stress fracture." Much as I wanted to jump up and down, I just smiled, and said, "So, full weight-bearing OK?" He said yes, do some extra anterior leg strengthening for a few weeks (I actually plan to add a few exercises to my weekly strength training for this anyway), of course be cautious about ramping up too quickly (duh), and he noted that there is some degeneration in my left foot that I should probably have checked out. I did not know this! My guess is it's a hold over from when I originally tore my ACL way back in 1985. I have never felt like I was having issues with that foot, but it is probably prudent to get it checked out, and besides, I could use new orthotics.

As good as that verdict sounded, for me, nothing will matter until I can return to normal running. But on Thursday, I did the leg portion of my strength workout and had no problems doing it along with another hard bike workout. On Friday morning, I had scheduled 5500 yards for myself, but I was at the pool early enough that I had time for 6000 and was feeling great, so I went ahead and got a big swim done.

Mid-day Friday I went back to the Y to get on the elliptical. I thought I'd give my legs a break for at least this week which wouldn't hurt in the big scheme of things. I did 30' on the thing, and then thought, why don't I try some strides on the track? I did, and it felt weird because of how elliptical is way more hamstring dominant, but my quads felt fine, no shin pain whatsoever, but just a tad of right ankle. Oh well, no harm done as long as there is no increase in pain afterwards.

Which there wasn't. Yesterday it turned into a glorious day, and I was hoping I could ride outdoors since the times I can do that between now and March are going to be few and far between. I didn't know how my ankle would fare under real road conditions, though. Since I was adding a (relatively) lot of biking to the week, I decided to ride the MTB which would guarantee that I didn't push myself too hard. As soon as I headed out, I could sense I was going to be just fine. I ended up riding for 2 hours, enjoyed the hell out of it, and even stood up a few times with no ill effects!

On my plan, I had a 30' run scheduled for yesterday as well. But since I had plenty of other things to get done yesterday, I figured I had better get on it right away. The last time I ran after biking was...ROTPM! I decided I'd try actual running, and if it didn't feel good or right, I'd just call it a day.

Although my legs felt like cement because of not being used to biking before, and I had biked 2 hours which was my longest ride in 7 weeks, and because I have to run up hill from my house, it was entertaining. But my ankle did not hurt! I was just so happy to be able to run that I know I was smiling like crazy, even though I felt like I was hardly moving. But it was November, I was wearing shorts and a bra top and sunglasses, so what was there not to like? I decided I didn't need to run for 30' and that 25' would be just fine, and even though I felt SO slow on the way out, I ran pretty well on the way back home. I was just so happy that I could run and hoped I could go longer on Sunday.

Today we got the beautiful weather again, and I decided I'd drive to Greene Valley so I could run on the crushed limestone flatness. While I was sweeping up some pine needles in my driveway, my ankle didn't feel perfect, but it may have been because I was on asphalt, who knows? At any rate, the plan was to go to Greene Valley, plan on running for 1:10 if I could make it that long (and if not finish on elliptical), and then head to the Y to swim 1000 just for recovery purposes.

I started running and felt absolutely nothing in the shin or ankle right off the bat, and after about a mile, I was pretty confident I could do an entire loop (6.9 miles), and maybe even a little more. I got the whole loop done and headed out for a bit more to get in the full 1:10 of running, and ended up just over 8 miles total!

I guess I'm done with elliptical trainer now (truth is I can't stand it--worse than a treadmill), but I will continue to be conservative in ramping up the running between now and Goofy Challenge. I was thinking earlier this week that I might just do the half marathon, but unless something changes for the worse, I will be doing the marathon as well. Whereas I was doing a run 5'/walk 1' thing for North Face, fuck that, I plan on just running at Goofy so no more planned walking. Besides, I get plenty of breaks running at intersections. The Goofy courses are flat, flat, flat, and so there is no need for me to do all the hill running I'd done for North Face, which gives my legs a break, plus I will be doing plenty of treadmill running between now and then (unless we get very little snow which would be fine by me in which case I'll be running outdoors). Silly me for looking forward to another marathon, huh? But in the plan for Ultraman, I need to keep exposing myself to as much running (and swimming and biking) as I can handle without breaking down.

My ortho gave me a scrip for extra-strength Naproxen (Naprosyn, it's called), and I am taking it, and it seems to be doing something for me. I generally don't like taking NSAID's because they can mask pain that I should feel, but in this case, I am good with the 30-day regimen. I have been doing many things to test myself out to see just how recovered I am, and I'm coming along quite fine. I can do my ankle rotations now without any hitches or pain whatsoever. There is zero pain upon waking, and as I sit here post-run/swim, I feel fine, except for being a little tired, but I am happy for that feeling! I think that as long as I run on soft stuff (treadmill or my version of trail which is like carpeting compared to what I ran on 2 weeks ago) as often as possible, I will be good to go. My longest run pre-Goofy will only be 2.5 hours (maybe 2.75--we'll see), so I won't exactly be taxing my legs all that much compared to what I just came off of.

All good, I am just so happy that I am almost back to my usual self! After Goofy, I will be doing the indoor triathlon series again, which will be my only real racing next year before Ultraman. I decided not to sign up for IMFL 2010, as my cash flow is taking a serious hit already. I might do Silverman, I might not, I am just not going to think that far ahead. Besides, it would be enough for me to just do Ultraman next year. Cool thing is I found out and confirmed that my very first triathlon coach is also doing Ultraman! I still remember him telling me 9 years ago that I had no business doing an Ironman so soon (this coming from someone whose first triathlon was an Ironman), and at the time he was right, but I did grow into it, didn't I? And I guess now I am growing out of it in a way. I just don't know what I will want after Ultraman. Maybe a rest. Maybe an actual vacation without an all-day event in it. I have a big enough thing to worry about for now, and I guess I will just have to live vicariously through all the people I know who are racing.

For today, I am just happy I can run. And oh...


GAME ON!!!